Saudi Housing Minister Meets Egyptian Real Estate Developers

The Egyptian Minister of Housing and his Saudi counterpart, with the head of the Talaat Moustafa group. (Photo: Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Egyptian Minister of Housing and his Saudi counterpart, with the head of the Talaat Moustafa group. (Photo: Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Housing Minister Meets Egyptian Real Estate Developers

The Egyptian Minister of Housing and his Saudi counterpart, with the head of the Talaat Moustafa group. (Photo: Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Egyptian Minister of Housing and his Saudi counterpart, with the head of the Talaat Moustafa group. (Photo: Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Egyptian-African Businessmen Association (EABA) organized an intensive meeting on Saturday in Cairo to discuss opportunities for real estate development in the Kingdom.

The meeting was attended by Majid Al-Hogail, Saudi Minister of Housing, Dr. Essam bin Saad bin Saeed, Saudi Minister of Hajj and Umrah, and Engineer Mohamed Albuty, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Housing Company, along with the EABA Construction and Building Committee, headed by Engineer Mahmoud Hegazy and a group of senior Egyptian real estate developers.

The Saudi side gave a detailed presentation of the Kingdom’s achievements over the past six years in the housing sector, emphasizing the role of the National Housing Company in this regard.

“All of this contributed to the growth of the volume of financing for real estate projects from 30 billion riyals to nearly 380 billion riyals during the last 5 years,” Al-Hogail said, pointing to the increasing demand on the integrated housing system implemented by Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi minister affirmed his full support for Egyptian real estate developers’ endeavor to work within the Kingdom, saying that Saudi Arabia was “proud of the Egyptian expertise and ready to strengthen cooperation in this field.”

For his part, Dr. Yousri El-Sharqawy, head of the Egyptian-African Businessmen Association, stressed that the Kingdom has provided a pioneering model in real estate development.

He added that the EABA was looking forward to establishing joint investments between the private sector and real estate developers under the auspices of the two countries’ leaderships.

On Friday, Eng. Hisham Talaat Moustafa, CEO and Managing Director of Talaat Moustafa Group, received the Saudi minister and his Egyptian counterpart, and the accompanying Saudi delegation, on a tour inside the city of Madinaty in New Cairo.



Lebanon Receives $250 million World Bank Loan to Ease Power Problems

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Lebanon Receives $250 million World Bank Loan to Ease Power Problems

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

The World Bank has granted Lebanon a $250 million loan aimed at helping alleviate persistent power cuts worsened by last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah, the country's finance ministry said on Thursday.

Even before the conflict, Lebanon had for years been struggling with a severe shortage of imported fuel and poor infrastructure.

Following the conflict, however, the World Bank said it would need around $11 billion for reconstruction and recovery, Reuters reported.

The fighting between the Iran-backed group and Israel ended for the most part in November through a brittle ceasefire brokered by the United States, though the two sides accuse each other of failing to fully implement the deal.

Lebanon had said it received preliminary approval to increase a World Bank reconstruction loan to $400 million from $250 million. The loan is part of a $1 billion reconstruction program, with the remainder of the financing to come from international aid.