Egypt woos UAE investments in Dubai-style transformation of Matrouh
'I seek inspiration from Dubai … Give me the funding and I will turn [Matrouh] into Dubai tomorrow,' said the Major General Alaa Abu Zeid, the governor of Matrouh province.
The UAE received special attention in the lead-up to Egypt’s economic conference held last month in the north coast town of Marsa Matrouh.
"Matrouh: the Future of Investment" was a governorate-level event based on the Egyptian Economic Development Conference (EEDC) led by the president Abdel Fattah El Sisi in March.
The event offered investment opportunities in multibillion-dollar projects in property, industry, agriculture, resource extraction and construction of a north coast trading port.
And as in the March economic summit – organised by a joint Egyptian-Emirati task force – the UAE played a central role on stage and behind the scenes.
According to Major General Alaa Abu Zeid, the governor of the Matrouh province, the conference was the culmination of a six-month promotion campaign that included two visits to the UAE.
This month, Mr Abu Zeid was sent by Egypt’s prime minister, Sherif Ismail, on an investment mission to showcase the Matrouh governorate’s investment opportunities to members of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce, returning with US$12 billion in investment pledges.
Central among them, alongside pricey plans for luxury tourist resorts, is construction of the Matrouh Port, which would serve the dual purpose of promoting tourism and international trade.
According to Mr Abu Zeid, Saudi and Emirati firms have signed initial pledges to lead the port construction, which he estimated will cost a hefty $10bn.
Mohammed Sherif, a manager of investments in the Matrouh governorate, says the port would play a significant role in supporting the proposed Matrouh development spree, easing industrial and agricultural trade and welcoming foreign tourists.
But while plans for coastal developments dominated, the hinterlands of Matrouh, Egypt’s second-largest governorate in terms of land mass, also received some attention.
Additional investment pledges back from Mr Abu Zeid’s UAE visit included those for industrial projects estimated at $5bn in water bottling, olive oil production and the exploitation of salt ponds in the Siwa Oasis.
Also on the drawing board are what the Matrouh governor described as “the largest fish farm in the Middle East” and recreational developments such as a zoo featuring desert animals.
If the plans for the desert-dominated governorate sound ambitious, they should.
According to the governor, the economic conference “announces Matrouh’s initiation into the era of Egypt’s mega national projects”.
Indeed, the conference plays into plans for the Northwest Coast Development Project, one of the handful of mega national endeavours championed by Mr El Sisi’s administration.
And as with most of Mr El Sisi’s grand plans, Emirati influence can be expected to keep pace economically and aesthetically.
Asked what he would like to see from Matrouh, Mr Abu Zeid responds without hesitation: Dubai.
“I seek inspiration from Dubai … Give me the funding and I will turn [Matrouh] into Dubai tomorrow.”
Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
GROUP RESULTS
Group A
Results
Ireland beat UAE by 226 runs
West Indies beat Netherlands by 54 runs
Group B
Results
Zimbabwe tied with Scotland
Nepal beat Hong Kong by five wickets
Sole survivors
Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
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