Parliament approves loan agreements for Sinai’s development

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Wed, 28 Feb 2018 - 12:22 GMT

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Wed, 28 Feb 2018 - 12:22 GMT

FILE-Egyptian Parliament

FILE-Egyptian Parliament

CAIRO – 28 February 2018: Implementing President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s directives regarding the comprehensive development plan in Sinai, members of the Parliament have taken several actions to promote development in Sinai.

The members of the Parliament agreed that the 2018 military comprehensive operations to uproot terrorism from Sinai will pave the way for the large-scale development in the Sinai Peninsula, attracting many investments and advancing Sinai’s demographic characteristics.

President Sisi affirmed during his visit to the Unified Command of East of the Canal To Combat Terrorism on February 25 that the comprehensive development of Sinai started in 2014 and will last until 2022, with a cost estimated at LE 275 billion ($15.5 billion), calling on Egyptian businessmen to invest in Sinai as the area is Egypt’s primary security issue.

Head of the Parliament’s Economic Affairs Committee Mohamed Badrawi remarked that security and stability are essential for attracting investments and for achieving progress in Sinai especially in the fields of education, health and sewage networks.

He referred to the investment law that prepares Sinai to be a developmental region by offering free or low price lands in Sinai for investors. He pointed out that the parliament approved loan agreements to put the development plan into effect;these loan agreements mainly focus on agricultural development by planting 200,000 feddans and establishing new Bedouin houses away from the agricultural lands.

Badrawi called for holding a conference in Sinai, in which businessmen can participate, after the comprehensive operation as a new start for Sinai.

In this regard, Secretary-General of Egypt Support Coalition that seizes the majority of the Parliament Magdi Morshed said that the comprehensive plan is essential as it will not give the terrorists any chance to control or intervene in Sinai.

He stressed the importance to provide the catalysts necessary for promoting the fields of health, education, and investment, reconstructing Sinai, raising the living standards, and providing new job opportunities. He referred that Sinai has the infrastructure, but it needs to be developed; many hospitals are found in Sinai but without qualified human potentials and modern medical equipment.

During Sisi’s visit to the Unified Command, Army Chief-of-Staff Mohamed Farid provided details about the comprehensive development plan in Sinai, saying that the Armed Forces coordinate with all the country’s institutions to provide Sinai with social and health insurance by supplying ambulances and logistic services and facilities, along with financial compensations and exceptional pensions to Northern Sinai citizens to reduce any negative effect of the operations.

He further explained that the Armed Forces have distributed food supplies: 615 tons of food commodities through National Service Products Organization, around 450 tons of wheat, 1120 supplementary general food rations estimated as 5,000 food rations daily, 9,600 gas cylinders, and 35,000 liter of petrol.

As for the medical services, Farid added that 13 tons of medical liquid oxygen and 72 doctors were provided for hospitals especially in Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid; also, medications and vaccines were distributed and two hospitals in Central Sinai were constructed.

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