Egypt allocates Red Sea land for issuing bonds and lowering debt
CAIRO - Egypt has allocated a 174 square km (67 square mile) plot on the Red Sea coast to the finance ministry for use in Islamic bond issuances and in efforts to lower the country's public debt, the official gazette said on Tuesday.
The gazette did not elaborate on how the land would be used, but Egypt, which has been mired in a slow-burning economic crisis, signed a $35 billion deal with the United Arab Emirates early last year to develop a 170-square-km tract along the Mediterranean coast.
Since then, Egypt has been seeking similar large-scale investments as it tries to overcome the economic crisis.
It has been in talks with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait in a bid to attract major investments, according to investment bankers and news reports.
In tandem, Egypt also plans to issue $2 billion in sukuks, or Islamic bonds, in 2025, Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk told Reuters in April.
(Reporting by Mohamed Ezz, Nafisa Eltahir, and Patrick Werr; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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