Ayman Ismail, Chairman, Dar Al Mimar Group-Mountain View Egypt, has revealed that his company is owning  various portfolio of lands in New Cairo Compound 5 ,sixth October, Ain Sokhna, North Coast and Ras Sudr and these lands are enough for the company for three years. Ayman Ismail, pointed out that the company’s start in the implementation of two new projects such as ‘Hyde Park’ Mountain View Compound 5 on an area of 200 feddans which is being implemented in a period ranging between 4 to 5 years in addition to ‘October Park’ project on an area of 60 feddans. Moreover, Ismail added to Amwal Al Ghad that the political stability and the clear vision of government are two main conditions so as to achieve comprehensive economic renaissance, especially the economy has owned the factors which can make it achieve good growth rates, explaining that the real estate sector represents about 16% from the total results  and it will play an important role. it is expected that the economy will achieve growth in the sales volume with 20% within this year. Furthermore, Ismail has demanded from the government to put the development as a main goal when the lands will be offered to investors and not to depend on auction system expecting that the prices will raise with the hike of the dollar's value. Al Mimar Group will participate in establishing ‘Dar Es Salam’ project in cooperation with ‘together’ foundation to solve slums problems, Ismail has explained that the group is now receiving the lands from the governorate after the completion of urban planning which will be on an area of 60 feddans with cost of EGP 450 million. More»

Eng. Ibrahim Hassan, Chief Executive Officer of Kuwadico, which established by Kuwait’s National Real Estate Company (NREC) in a joint partnership with Egypt’s Wadi El Nil Company, has unveiled that the company finished 60% of the infrastructure of "Grand Heights" in 6th October City. The company will contract with Orascom Construction Industries to carry out the first phase of the venture at EGP 250 million investments. He referred that the company has injected EGP 1.6 billion in the venture so far, out of EGP 8 billion total investments. In an exclusive interview to "Amwal Al Ghad", the company is committed to its expansion strategies in Egypt after the revolution, so it focuses on its infrastructure; elaborating that The Ministry of Housing and the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) have been taking serious procedures since Dr Tareq Wafiq engaged as a Minister of Housing, said Hassan, elaborating that the ministry started to allow investors to take part in takeing the decisions, which negatively reflected i\on the real estate sector. Hassan added that the security and political turmoil are still obstacles in front of the growing of the Egyptian real estate market, more and above the bureaucracy made by the cities' apparatus, like the problem of granting building licenses. More»

Hill International manages the construction of a number of projects in Egypt with investment cost of more than EGP 2 billion most notably; Qatar’s Barwa project, Grand Egyptian Museum, Nile Ritz Carlton Hotel, Crédit Agricole’s headquarters, Porto Sokhna project, Secon Nile Towers, Novotel Hotel and Arab Banking Corporation’s headquarters, said Waleed Abdel Fattah, Senior Vice President & Regional Manager - North Africa Region at Hill International. The investment cost of projects managed by the company around the world reached US$ 500 billion, he added. Abdel Fattah affirmed that the company executes and delivers the projects in accordance with international standards and on time. He revealed that the company targets to execute Nile Ritz Carlton Hotel and Crédit Agricole’s headquarters in 2013, adding that the company has a market share of 35% in this sector in Egypt. He noted that the real estate investors await the country’s economic and political situations to be stable, so the government has to finalize the settlements being conducted from two years in a fair way so as to regain investors’ confidence in the Egyptian market. More»

 The Governor of Cairo, Dr Osama Kamal, has revealed that the governorate will offer three investment projects through tenders in the coming period, including increasing the maritime transport by 10%, through the PPP by which the governorate is aiming at establishing 15 stations over 55 km from El Kanater Al-Khayreya to Helwan. The second project is Katameya Recreational Park which aims at doubling recreational parks in Cairo to improve leisure, retail and dining areas. As to the third project, it aims at doubling car parking areas through building the project "Multi-Storey Car Park" in Abbasiya, east Cairo. The Governor also referred that there are negotiations with Disney land, but these negotiations target places out of Cairo governorate. Dr Osama Kamal stated that “our vision for future aims at making Cairo the leading capital of global tourism, culture, business and science in 2030. This vision, which is based on 6 strategic goals, will be turned into projects, some of them are mentioned above, in the future. More»

The Egyptian Minister of Housing and Urban Communities Dr. Tarek Wafiq revealed that the Ministry has drafted a law regulating the Suez Canal Corridor Development Project and referred it to the Cabinet from three weeks and it will be discussed at the Shura Council soon. The law is unprecedented as it seeks the establishment of an authority to manage the project and make it compete with international ports. The Authority’s board of directors will have the powers of ministries and the head of the heads of the authority will have a similar status of a deputy prime minister, he added. He revealed in an interview with Amwal Al Ghad that the fifth basin of Ain Sokhna will be offered within two months in a tender and the full plan of the development of the region will be submitted within a week to five international consulting offices including PHP office which had designed East Port Said Port. The Ministry has finalized the regulation of the New Urban Communities Authority and it will be discussed in the next meeting of the Authority’s board of directors by the middle of next April. This regulation will remove many of the obstacles facing investors. The government has achieved much progress in the settlement process of the pending disputes with investors as DAMAC Properties, for example, has sent a settlement scheme to the Ministry to be approved. The Armed Forces have not objected to the law, but the Ministry discussed the methods of offering the lands of the project for sale and the nature of the project with the Ministry of Defense and also discussed the project with the Ministries of Investment and Transport so as to set a clear plan for the project in coordination with other ministries. The project is not hinged on issuing the development law, as the project of the second container terminal has been already offered in a tender and the fifth basin of Ain Sokhna will be offered within two months. The first phase of the Technology Valley Project is being executed. The full plan of the development of the region will be submitted within a week to five international consulting offices including PHP office which designed East Port Said Port. More»

Dr Osama Kamal, Cairo Governor, Egypt, said that Cairo is facing at the current period a lot of challenges and problems, the most salients ones are the infrastructure and its deteriorated main parts, the solid wastes and its managements, the transportation, along with the informal areas, which reached 112 ones across Cairo. He added that the governorate has started to make up a scheme and future vision for Cairo to repair those key challenges. The prominent features of this scheme is to focus on appointing a group of youth leaders to set their vision for the governorate within the coming two decades; handling and overcoming those challenges. And it is ready done, as some goals and a main vision are set and the governoarte is working towards connecting them in order to be achieved. As to the current vision is being set, the Governor said we are keening on reaching a consensus with the government's national strategic plan in the other governorates on the level of development. He affirmed that resolving the problems of Cairo comes after resolving the problems in the rest governorates. In this regard, Kamal elaborated that Cairo needs stable population, as the migration from other governorates hinder resolving Cairo's problems. Moreover, the Governor reviewed a number of the current indicators exist in Cairo, like the number of population there amid the ongoing migration, which amount to 10 million people, the majority are youth who have power not exploited yet, and 200,000 universities graduates annually. So Cairo is a cultural as well as financial center, not only for Egypt but for Arab countries and Africa, more and above it is an access to Asia due to its distinguished location. More»

Tarek Wafiq, Egypt's Minister of Housing and Urban Communities, announced on Wednesday that the ministry has submitted a request to the Cabinet seeking to amend the Tenders and Auctions Act No. 59/79 to include transparent public allocations of lands. During his opening note in Cityscape Egypt Summit, H.E Wafiq further said the ministry also submitted 3 weeks ago to the cabinet a draft law as regard to the Suez Canal development process noting that the main feature of the project is to establish an authority in Suez Canal area to be organized by a council of governors. He also asserted that Egypt's Upper House – Shura Council will resume today the discussion over the draft law in preliminary stage to start the development process in Suez Canal area. We shall provide Suez Canal with the logistic services which would rise the transit fees in the canal from US$80 for each container to US$500. More»

In a move to strengthen and stimulate the Egyptian real estate sector, Kuwait Wadi El Nil Urban Development (Kuwadico) signed strategic alliances with leading Egyptian real estate developer and contractors such as "Orascom Construction Industries" (OCIC.CA) and "Amer Group" (AMER.CA) to carry out the "Grand Heights" project in the Sixth of October City allocating more than LE 8 Billion in investments consigning the world’s leading consultants. Engineer Ibrahim Hassan; Chief Executive Officer of Kuwadico stated: "We strongly believe in the strength and prospects of the Egyptian real estate market, which represents a backbone to the Egyptian Economy at large, despite any current challenges prevailing, with the first signs of stability and government support, we expect the market to recover and flourish significantly”. Hassan added: “We are hoping and looking forward to practical results of recent and upcoming government measurements in support of the industry and hence will directly drive more investments in the development and real estate industry, which remains evermore the most attractive market in the whole region”. More»

Brigade El-Sayed Nasr, Chairman of the Holding Company for Drinking Water and Sanitation, has denied Egypt’s plans to increase drinking water tariffs as result of its direction for implementing drinking water and sanitation projects with Partnership between the public and the private sectors (PPP). He pointed out that the drinking water provision is the citizens sole right that no one  can manipulate or raise the price without taking into consideration the economic and social sides for citizens. Moreover, Nasr added that the country will agree on the implementation of PPP projects and it will bear the cost of re-pricing water according to the economic situation, stressing that there is no so-called privatization of drinking water and sanitation sector. More»

The Saudi Egyptian Construction Company (SECON) signed an EGP 928 million-construction agreement with the Emirati-Egyptian alliance, Arabtec Construction L.L.C in joint venture with Industrial Engineering and Construction Company (SIAC) to build its “Secon Nile Towers” mega project located at Maadi Nile Corniche in Cairo.The scope of work includes the construction of two 23-storey towers, which are expected to be completed early 2016. The first tower is a 5-stars Hotel Tower, and the second tower is for touristic - residential use. Eng. Darwish Hassanin, the Chief Executive Officer of SECON said ”signing the agreement with Arabtec - SIAC JV is another step forward to complete Secon Nile Towers after signing the hotel management agreement with Hilton Worldwide in the past few weeks. This project is the first Egyptian-Saudi project of its kind marking the strength of Egypt-Saudi diplomatic and economic ties. And, emphasize the kingdom’s interest in pumping more investments to boost Egypt’s economic growth” More»