The Egyptian government announced the receipt of the first batch of flows from the Ras El Hekma project amounting to $15 billion, according to a Cabinet statement on Friday.
On Thursday, Egypt announced that it would receive $5 billion, and would receive a similar amount on Friday, in addition to transferring an Emirati deposit worth $5 billion – at the Central Bank of Egypt – into the pound.
Egyptian Prime Minister spokesman Mohamed Al-Homsani said in a statement on Friday that the Egyptian government received another $5 billion today from the first installment of the investment partnership deal with the UAE, “and thus the first installment has been effectively completed.”
The Cabinet statement indicated that “measures have been taken to coordinate between the Central Bank and the Emirati side, to transfer $5 billion from the deposit into the Egyptian pound.”
Egypt allocated 170.8 million square meters to establish the new Ras El Hekma project, after the government signed, last Friday, a deal that it described as “the largest direct investment deal” with an alliance led by the Emirati investment company ADQ to develop the Ras El Hekma coastal tourist area.
The total value of the deal is $35 billion, which includes an Emirati deposit of $11 billion. The money will be pumped in two phases, the first of which took place this week and the second in two months. The second phase includes the rest of the Emirates’ deposit, i.e. $6 billion. Egypt expects this deal to help address the dollar liquidity crisis it is suffering from.
