Sayed Al Ashry, head of the Construction and Housing Company for Utilities, reveals that the government has approved 8,300 projects to rebuild Upper Egypt in seven years, and it has spent nearly EGP 350 bn until 2021, Invest-Gate reports.

Additionally, Al Ashry notes that upper Egypt has a large number of infrastructure projects, road hubs, water and sanitation plants, power plants, and agricultural and industrial projects.

Regarding the distribution of the investment, he highlights out that the government has invested EGP 56 bn in the drinking water and sanitation sector, EGP 48 bn in the health sector, EGP 41 bn in the road sector, EGP 38 bn in the electricity sector, EGP 30 bn in the housing sector and slums development, and EGP 19 bn in the education sector.

“The investment value of national projects over the past 30 years reached EGP 30 bn yearly, a total of EGP 900 bn, but now national projects are being implemented at EGP 1 trillion yearly. In seven years, we have spent EGP 7 trillion on national projects,” Al Ashry states.

Al Ashry further adds, “According to the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development statistics, the governorates of southern Egypt have received government investments in the current fiscal year 2021-2022 plan, totalling EGP 92.4 bn.” This comes as a part of the national project to develop upper Egypt with its four axes of establishing the General Authority for the Development of Southern Egypt.

Moreover, he elaborates that the government has drawn up a large budget for the development of upper Egypt, adding that the per capita income rate in upper Egypt governorates will be higher than that of the capital in the coming days, thanks to the ongoing national projects.

Furthermore, he reveals that the government has completed the implementation of more than 1,131 projects over the past seven years for drinking water and sanitation cities and rural areas to serve more than 45 mn people, at a cost of EGP 124 bn, in addition to the implementation of 5,792 replacement and renovation projects, at a cost of EGP 9 bn. Besides, the government has spent EGP 40 bn on water and drainage projects in new cities and a number of other projects, bringing the total expenditure in the water and drainage sector to EGP 174 bn.

Al Ashry concludes that Upper Egypt is witnessing real development that it has not seen before, explaining that this reflects positively on attracting foreign investment to Egypt because the availability of strong infrastructure confirms the strength of the economy of any country.