The Egyptian billionaire and businessman, Naguib Sawiris, sparked a state of great anger in Saudi Arabia after he accused Saudi investments in the Red Sea region of threatening Egyptian projects and investments.
During a panel discussion at the Hapi economic conference, under the title “Empowering the Private Sector,” Sawiris said that there is a threat to Egyptian investments in Sharm el-Sheikh and the Red Sea because of the investments that Saudi Arabia is implementing in the Red Sea, whether in NEOM or other areas.
Sawiris pointed out that “Egypt needs to solve the problems of investors and encourage the private sector, calling for reducing security thinking in the field of investment, as obtaining a security approval requires several months, and perhaps a year, which hinders investment.”
The global economy is heading into recession
In another context, Sawiris considered that his personal feeling leads him to the fact that the global economy is heading towards a “recession,” noting that the global economy has not gone through a more dangerous stage than this stage.
It is noteworthy that during the past months, the Saudi Public Investment Fund acquired stakes in several Egyptian companies, with a value of more than $1.5 billion.
Last April, ADQ Holding, one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign funds, acquired stakes in 5 companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange for about $1.8 billion.
Egypt targets foreign investments worth $10 billion next year, in a plan to attract a number of Arab sovereign funds, in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and other destinations, according to the Egyptian Minister of Planning.
In March 2018, Saudi Arabia signed investment agreements with Egypt to develop Egyptian lands in southern Sinai, to be part of the NEOM project, in the far northwest of Saudi Arabia.
“NEOM” is a Saudi project for future cities in the sense of describing it, launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on October 24, 2017, and is located in the far northwest of Saudi Arabia, and includes lands within the Egyptian and Jordanian borders.