Joint conference in Cairo Qatar will inject $18 billion worth of investments into Egypt over the course of the coming five years, said Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jassim. He announced this at joint conference in Cairo with Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.
The pledged investment included around $8 billion. This will be allocated to electricity and natural gas projects in the area of Sarq al-Tafreaa, in the east of the Suez Canal, where Egypt has longstanding plans to build a massive industrial city.
Another $10 billion will go to a planned tourist resort on Egypt\'s north coast. Bin Jassim praised the Egyptian government for putting strict timelines for achieving the Qatari investments in the country, which shows that Egypt is serious about this issue.
\"All the constraints that hindered our cooperation with Egypt in the past are over, there is no ceiling for this cooperation now,\" Bin Jassim said.
In yet another indication of friendship between the two nations, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi met with Bin Jassim following the latter\'s arrival to Cairo on Thursday. According to Bin Jassim, he and Morsi have agreed to increase the number of Egyptian employees and workers in Qatar.
In early August, Qatar pledged to deposit $2 billion in the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), as a mean of easing the country\'s budget deficit. The promise was made following a visit by Qatar\'s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, to Egypt, where he met with Morsi.
Later in August, Qatar deposited the first part – worth around $500 million – in the CBE.
Bin Jassim said at Thursday\'s press conference that Qatar would transfer the rest of the pledged $2 billion in three installments within the next two months, the second part will be transferred by the end of this month.
For his part, PM Hisham Qandil announced that both countries have also agreed to organise more air flights between them, the thing that will encourage more Qatari tourists and investors to visit Egypt.