Politics
Middle East
Economics
Infrastructure Development
Finance
Real Estate
Government Investments
Foreign Exchange Rate Control
Friends in Egypt and abroad asking more questions about where the 10-year debt binge was spent. Here are some highlights. Where government didn't invest directly, FX-rate control indirectly subsidized investors with cheap USD:
Al-Alamein presidential palace (cost undisclosed)
Al-Alamein presidential palace (cost undisclosed)
Administrative Capital presidential palace (cost undisclosed)
Administrative Capital "Iconic Tower" est. cost $3 billion (equivalent to value of IMF bailout announced in December)
More info: theb1m.com
More info: theb1m.com
Back to Administrative Capital, because building that city from scratch in the desert will cost an estimated $59 billion.
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Monorail for Cairo's eastern suburbs. Cost: $3 billion.
More sky-scrapers on the Mediterranean.
Sure, some of the money was spent on legitimate infrastructure. But even that lacked oversight since the military gutted the country's independent auditing bodies and filled parliament with loyalists. Presidency's list: presidency.eg
One thing is clear: Egypt would be doing just fine today with two fewer presidential palaces, sans the biggest mosque this and biggest church that and Africa's tallest tower.
It'd be doing even better had it simply used the money to invest in its own people.
It'd be doing even better had it simply used the money to invest in its own people.
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