The tourism sector is awaiting the approvals of banks to grant dollar loans for replacing and renewing operations for its buildings, according to Head of the Tourism Investment Association in South Sinai Hesham Ali.
Ali said in a special statement to Daily News Egypt that the tourism sector representatives demanded that banks to grant them dollar loans to conduct replacing and renewing operations for some hotels and tourism facilities, in addition to carrying out the needed maintenance, during a meeting last Sunday .
The tourism sector is awaiting the banks’ approval on the request within a day or two. The values of these loans will be determined in accordance with the need and size of each case.
According to Ali, these loans are expected to be issued with the interest in US dollars. However, they will be taken in Egyptian pounds and will be repaid in US dollars. If it is a $1m loan, the investor will obtain its value of EGP 8m. While repaying the loan, the $1m will be repaid in addition to its interest in dollars, not in pounds.
Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Kamal Negm said 10 banking leaders met Sunday with representatives of a large number of tourism companies in the presence of the South Sinai Governor. The meeting was held to discuss how to help tourism investors overcome the damages they suffered after the Russian plane crash in Sinai in October.
According to the Head of Tourism Investment Association in South Sinai, tourism companies demanded postponing the installments of the loans that were obtained by companies’ workers for one year.
The tourism companies also demanded to be granted emergency loans to help them pay their obligations and their employees’ salaries. This is in addition to the dollar loans that would be used in the replacing and renewing operations.
Ali said tourism investors were met with a positive response from Negm and the representatives in the meeting and the latter promised to study the demands and respond as soon as possible.
