The Qatari Ambassador to Egypt, Tariq Faraj al-Ansari, has revealed that Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company is preparing to launch a massive tourism project on the Red Sea coast in partnership with the St. Regis Group.
This comes as part of the company’s ambitious plans to expand within the Egyptian market.
Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference for a Qatari-Egyptian partnership to manage a hotel in the New Administrative Capital, Al Ansari noted that Qatari Diar currently holds approximately 29 million square meters (around 7,166 acres) of land and is actively negotiating with government bodies to finalize the launch of the new project.
However, he did not disclose any further details about the project or the expected value of the investment.
Qatari Diar, a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority, originally acquired the 29 million square meters—located between Makadi Bay and Sokhna Bay—from the General Authority for Tourism Development in 2006 for a major tourism development that has yet to be executed.
Regional investment surge
The announcement comes just days after major partnership contracts were signed between the UAE’s Emaar and Saudi Arabia’s City Stars to establish a colossal tourism project in the Red Sea region spanning 10 million square meters.
That project boasts investments exceeding LE900 billion (US$18.5 billion) and is expected to create around 150,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Following the signing, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly affirmed that the coming period would witness even more projects in this region, which is set to become a world-class, year-round global tourist destination.
North Coast project on track for year-end launch
The Qatari Ambassador confirmed that Qatari Diar’s project in the North Coast region is also making significant progress, predicting the inauguration and detailed announcement of that project before the end of the current year.
According to media reports, the North Coast project spans 60,000 feddans in the Alam al-Roumi area east of Matrouh, with an investment value approaching $3.5 billion. It is expected to include developments similar to those in the Ras al-Hekma area.
Al Ansari pointed out that these anticipated investments are part of the direct investment package totaling $7.5 billion, which was announced by the Egyptian-Qatari Higher Committee during its recent meeting in New Alamein, implementing the agreement reached between the two countries’ political leaders.
Qatari Diar owns about 40 million square meters of land in Egypt, with its largest announced project to date being the CityGate project in New Cairo, covering 8.5 million square meters.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
