UAE to invest $4.9bn in Egypt

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) deputy minister of defense and crown prince of Abu Dhabi Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Egypt's Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi, agreed in Abu Dhabi that the Gulf state would invest 4.9 billion U. S. dollars to support development projects in Egypt. The agreement was sealed during a three-day official visit to the UAE, a major oil supplier, by the Egyptian prime minister, who is joined by a high-level delegation, the official Emirati news agency WAM reported. According to the report, the support included "a grant of 1 billion dollars which has been transferred to Egypt last July, " and an additional allocation of more than 1 billion dollars to help provide Egypt with part of its fuel requirements." The UAE aimed to ensure that the most-populous Arab country was able to maintain its economy, industry, trade and transportation during this transitional phase, said the report. The aid package would also include the construction of 50,000 housing units in Cairo, in addition to 25 wheat and grain storing silos with a capacity of 15,000 tons per silo and the construction of 79 basic healthcare units that would provide Egypt with 80 percent of its vaccination needs. In addition, the UAE promised to complete sewage networks in remote villages in order to reduce the spread of infectious diseases. On July 3, the Egyptian military ousted president Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood after millions of Egyptians took to the streets in Cairo and major cities on June 30, demanding Morsi to step down. The military installed an interim-government under President Adli Mansour, the former head of Egypt's constitutional court, and promised new elections in early 2014. After Morsi was removed from power, the UAE pledged to Egypt a total of 3 billion dollars as part of a 12 billion dollar aid package granted by the Gulf Arab states. On Sept. 3, the UAE transferred an additional 2 billion dollars to Egypt. Egypt has been suffering from ongoing turmoil, economic hardship, a currency slump and constant braindrain since 2011 unrest that toppled president Hosni Mubarak who was a close ally of the UAE. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), youth unemployment in Egypt stood at 18 percent as of June 2013, while the economy's growth rate of expected 2 percent for this year would not be sufficient to reduce the high jobless rate. Relations between Morsi and Abu Dhabi, on the other hand, remained tensed, as the UAE accused the Muslim brotherhood of steering "secret terror cells" in UAE to create unrest and a coup d'etat.