In a collaboration between Arabian German for Exhibition & Publishing and Reed Expositions France, the French-based international conference for the construction industry, BATIMAT, held its first gathering in the Egyptian capital on March 9, Invest-Gate reports.

“BATIMAT’s unprecedented presence in Egypt is a sign of foreign investors’ trust in the country’s current investment environment,” Minister of Housing and Urban Communities Madbouly said in the opening panel of BATIMAT’s two-day conference.

On the environmental part of the dialogue,  Minister of Environment Khaled Fahmy illustrated the governmental efforts in raising the ecological standards of its strategies. “The most important thing is to put in consideration the economical, environmental, as well as, societal dimensions of our consumption to the natural resources we use in the pending projects,” he said. Regarding the housing and buildings sector, “the government has come a long way to enforce evaluation and rationalization criteria as well as recycle waste into composing construction material,” he continued.

President of The General Confederation of Algerian Institutions Saida Neghza began her speech by voicing her respect and gratitude to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for “following a firm strategy to create investment opportunities and establish a strong economic base.”

She then went on introducing the 28-year-old General Confederation of Algerian Institutions and how it impacts the Algerian socioeconomic affairs, including annual community dialogues to discuss solutions for the Algerian economic reform.

BPW Board Member Mohamed Montasser moderated a featured interview with Chairman of the New Administrative City Ayman Ismail.  Ismail highlighted the progress of the new capital’s construction work. He explained that out of the total of 170,000 acres, 40,000 acres have been allocated for the first phase, of which around 10,500 are prioritized and therefore their infrastructure work is almost done. “The main roads encompassing the first phase are also 80% completed,” he confirms.

“There has been a total of 2,000 acres tendered for mixed use as of mid February; more than 200 TORs have been bought,” he said, stressing on the importance of having a diversified bundle of projects, not only confined to housing, to attract investors.
Minister of Housing and Urban Communities Mostafa Madbouly joined Minister of Environment Khaled Fahmy, President of The General Confederation of Algerian Institutions Saida Neghza and VP of Egyptian Businessmen’s Association’s (EBA) Fathallah Fawzy in a discussion on the investment environment in the country. BATIMAT gathered ministers, officials and 30 French companies, among other 600 key players in the industry.