Sinai provides all investment elements, opportunities: political organization

CAIRO – 27 April 2020: Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula now has large investments, which have been reflected by the developmental projects President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has recently inaugurated, said a member of the Coordination Committee of Party’s Youth Leaders and Politicians (CPYP) political organization.

This comes two days after the anniversary of Sinai Liberation Day in 1982, which marks the withdrawal of the last Israeli soldier from the formerly occupied peninsula, and few days after an article was published in a private newspaper article suggesting assigning a governor with expanded powers to better govern the peninsula.

CPYP member Mahmoud Faisal told Sabah Al Kheir Ya Misr on the national TV channel that dozens of projects have been implemented in Sinai, which has witnessed counter-terrorism battles, and noted that security, investment rules as well as transportation means are all available in Sinai, which provide the full elements of investment.

Since February 2018, the Egyptian Army has launched a comprehensive offensive against terrorist elements and facilities in various parts of the country, especially in North Sinai.

الرئيس السيسي يطلع على الموقف التنفيذي للخطة الاستراتيجية لتنمية سيناء

الرئيس السيسي يطلع على الموقف التنفيذي للخطة الاستراتيجية لتنمية سيناء اشترك الآن: https://goo.gl/NQkcZ5 فيسبوك: https://www.facebook.com/dmctveg تويتر: http...

Earlier in April, the Supreme Media Council fined the private daily newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm LE 250,000 ($15,832) over an op-ed penned by founder Salah Diab under the pen name “Newton.”

The column article suggested that Sinai should be assigned a governor with expanded powers to better govern the peninsula.

The council has ordered the paper to remove the piece from its website and issue an official apology. The newspaper is also required to suspend publishing Newton’s opinion pieces for one month. The council has also referred the case to the public prosecutor to decide whether further action is warranted against Diab.

Egyptian non-profit think tank, named the Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies (ECSS), on Saturday has published a study recognizing the state’s efforts to develop the Sinai Peninsula, especially North Sinai, during the past six years.

The study shows that the state has adopted a new approach to develop Sinai with various service and economic projects, mainly infrastructure projects.

Allocations to develop infrastructure in Sinai have reached LE 600 billion ($37.9 billion), the study shows, including linking the peninsula to the delta in Lower Egypt through major tunnels running under the Suez Canal. The projects also include seawater desalination plants and renewable energy plants. Also, many schools and hospitals were built.

Concerning education in Sinai, the number of classes in the pre-university levels increased from 4,793 in 2016 to 5,021 in 2019, making a higher increase rate compared with the capital Cairo.

In health, a number of large hospitals have been established by the Armed Forces in Arish, North Sinai’s largest city and the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh in South Sinai. A national project to develop Sinai aims to increase the number of beds inside hospitals to 6,000 by establishing 55 public hospitals and 23 private ones, to cope with the expected increase in the number of residents.