Billion dollar plan

THIS WEEK the government announced it was launching a major investment plan aimed at providing more job opportunities, generating income and increasing liquidity in the market. At a cost of one billion dollars, some 132 projects across a plethora of economic sectors will be offered to both local and international companies.

In statements to the press, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid described the projects as the first part of a major investment plan. The second part of the plan is due to be launched within the next six months.

According to Ebeid, preference will be given to the private sector, but the government will finance other projects through the National Bank for Investment.

On top of the list come the projects addressing more employment opportunities for the youth. To this end, LE100 million will be directed to the establishment of micro credit funds in a number of villages. Meanwhile, vocational training centres will go through extensive modernisation and upgrading at a cost of LE300 million.

Five projects will address the supplies and internal trade sector. These include the establishment of 3000 outlets of wholesale commodities in governorates across Egypt at a cost of LE300 million, and the establishment of a number of warehouses for the storage of strategic food imports such as wheat.

As for housing and utilities, projects will include the establishment of a company to finance mortgages, the construction of canals from the Nile River to Wadi Al-Natroun 100km north of Cairo to irrigate some 200,000 feddans at a cost of five billion pounds and the modernisation of the sewage and drainage system along the northern coast, while providing some 330 villages with potable water.

In the industrial arena, projects will be aimed at the local manufacturing of sugar, fertilisers, paper, sunflower oil and aluminum chips.

Among the assorted fields targeted by the remaining projects are petroleum, transport, tourism and culture, health and agricultural sectors.