Egypt MOTA, USAID Tackle Investments for Touristic Purposes at Archaeological Sites

The “Investing in Services in Archaeological and Heritage Areas” forum, which was held this morning at a major hotel in Cairo, witnessed cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities and the United States Agency for Development (USAID).

The opening session was inaugurated by Ahmed Issa, Minister of Tourism & Antiquities, in the presence of Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation.

During its second session, Maj. Gen. Hisham Amna, Minister of Local Development, and Maj. Gen. Khaled Abdel-Al, Governor of Cairo, presented a number of visions and ideas about investment opportunities available to develop tourism services in archaeological and heritage sites.

In his speech during the forum, Dr. Ziad Bahaa El-Din, Senior Policy Advisor for the Integrated Management of Cultural Tourism Project, expressed his happiness at the launch of this forum, hoping to come up with many ideas that ensure the continuation of investment projects in services at archaeological and heritage sites and achieve more achievements.

Dr. Bahaa El-Din also stressed the importance of working on more than one axis in parallel without conflict in order to ensure the preservation of archaeological and heritage sites and to ensure financial gains for investors, thus encouraging them to repeat the experience in other sites in Egypt.

He pointed out that Egypt has a number of laws that guarantee the protection of antiquities.

He suggested uniting all efforts made by the public and private sectors, donor agencies, as well as the local community, in a way that benefits everyone.

For his part, Dr. Abu Bakr Abdullah, in charge of managing the work of the Islamic, Coptic, and Jewish antiquities sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, reviewed the investment opportunities available in 21 archaeological sites in 7 Egyptian governorates of Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Assiut, Aswan, Gharbia and the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, Eng. Karim Ibrahim, Executive Director of the "Takween" Foundation for Community Development, said that the Foundation has already begun investing in 8 archaeological and heritage sites between historic Cairo and Luxor.

The third session of the forum also witnessed an open discussion with a number of participants in the field of cultural heritage about the sustainable participation of the private sector and its role in operating services at archaeological sites and cultural heritage sites, as well as the opportunities available therein.

Translated by Ahmed Moamar