(Bloomberg) -- Egypt’s government said it earmarked five areas on the Red Sea coastline to offer to investors for tourism development, looking to mirror a Mediterranean megadeal earlier this year that helped it overcome a grueling economic crisis.
The locations will include Ras Banas, a peninsula in southern Egypt sitting across from Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told reporters Thursday. He didn’t identify the other spots, but cited the precedent of February’s $24 billion investment by the United Arab Emirates to develop the Mediterranean headland of Ras El-Hekma.
That deal — which also saw $11 billion in investments elsewhere in Egypt — allowed the North African country to enact a long-awaited currency devaluation and unlock new International Monetary Fund financing, effectively ending two years of economic turmoil. Authorities are now seeking a steady supply of foreign direct investment from sales of state assets.
Madbouly said a $5 billion investment pledge from Saudi Arabia earlier this week would be an injection of new funds, not a conversion of Saudi deposits currently held by Egypt’s central bank. Private companies from the kingdom are also expected to invest up to $15 billion in “the coming period,” he said.
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