Cabinet approves establishing authority for Upper Egypt Development

CAIRO – 7 February 2018: The Cabinet has approved Wednesday a draft law to establish an authority for Upper Egypt Development, which will be located in Aswan governorate, Minister of Local Development Abu Bakr el- Guindy said.

The authority will be affiliated to the Prime Minister and aims to develop Upper Egypt, he added.

Egypt has been prioritizing the development of Upper Egypt recently. The area took the lion’s share of the industrial development in various fields under the current administration after years of neglect, Deputy Head of the Federation of Egyptian Industries’ Building Materials Chamber Kamal el-Desouki said last month.

He said that setting up industrial projects in Upper Egyptian governorates will help crease many jobs for youth. He added that for the first time there is a “real direction” to develop governorates in Upper Egypt, which have been neglected for a long time.

Desouki said that Upper Egypt acquired 37 percent of the new industrial projects. He said industrial zones and small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been established there.

Government’s investments in northern Upper Egypt reached LE 6.92 billion during the current fiscal year 2017/18, representing 3.6 percent of total investments.

Minya governorate is the top recipient of these investments, with 48.9 percent, followed by Beni Seuf and Fayoum.

In January, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi inaugurated a number of development projects in the Upper Egypt governorates, including housing projects and water stations.