Egypt's Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities Eng. Randa El Menshawy held a meeting with Eng. Moustafa Abdel Wahab, CEO of the Tourism Development Authority (TDA), to review the ministry's vision for developing the authority's working mechanisms, raising institutional performance and maximizing the use of available assets and resources, supporting the state's drive to boost tourism investment and achieve sustainable urban and tourism development.
The minister said the coming phase requires continuous development of the authority's methods and mechanisms, in line with the state's goals of making the most of the tourism and investment assets in all regions of the country and turning them into real investment and development opportunities that add value to the national economy.
During the meeting, Eng. Moustafa Abdel Wahab presented the proposed vision for developing working mechanisms, noting that the land under the authority's jurisdiction covers around 18.5 billion square meters. He also reviewed the status of existing and planned projects and investment opportunities on this land, reflecting the scale of the authority's assets and the potential to make greater use of them in the coming phase.
The TDA chief said there are around 110,000 hotel rooms in operation and around 60,000 under construction, which are expected to be added over the next two years, bringing total hotel capacity to around 170,000 rooms, in addition to around 190,000 more rooms on which work is starting, supporting the state's plans to increase the capacity of tourist destinations and maximize returns from tourism investment.
The meeting reviewed the status of a number of plots belonging to the authority and proposals to use them to build integrated tourist centers, helping to diversify tourism activities and services and create new destinations able to attract more investment and visitors.
In this regard, Eng. Randa El Menshawy stressed the importance of drawing up an integrated vision to make the most of the authority's land and assets, by studying the best uses and activities for them on clear economic and investment grounds to achieve the highest development and investment return, while complying with planning and environmental requirements and preserving the tourist character of the areas targeted for development.
The meeting also reviewed the status of land under the authority's jurisdiction, the proposed model for stimulating tourism investment, the main challenges and ways to address them, as well as a number of development proposals and visions aimed at making the most of these areas' tourism and investment assets.
In this context, a proposal was presented to establish tourist centers along the Red Sea coast and link them with the main roads and corridors of Upper Egypt's cities, opening new fields for tourism and investment development, creating jobs for the people of Upper Egypt's governorates and cities, achieving an integrated economic and social return and supporting the state's efforts to achieve balanced development across governorates.
At the end of the meeting, the housing minister directed the development of the system for offering investment opportunities and making information about them available in a clear and up-to-date way, to help attract investors and facilitate allocation procedures and the start of implementation, with precise mechanisms to monitor projects from tender until they become operational and to measure completion rates and returns.
She also directed stronger coordination and integration between the Tourism Development Authority and the various state bodies and relevant entities, the preparation of development plans and the removal of any obstacles to project implementation, helping to accelerate development and raise the efficiency of tourist areas, according to the official Facebook page of the Egyptian Cabinet.
