Sisi said during the April 22 inauguration ceremony that those who are talking about Sinai should be aware about what the state has achieved there in the past six years. He said that the state has spent 600 billion Egyptian pounds (
$38 billion) on
Sinai infrastructure projects, highlighting the state’s commitment to
reconstructing Sinai.
“Our
national security is not valued in money,” he said. Sisi also encouraged investors and businesses to invest in Sinai.
Businessman
Mohamed Farag Amer told Al-Masry Al-Youm April 23 that he is very pleased with what the president said about the achievements and plans that have been implemented in Sinai.
“The Egyptian state did the impossible in Sinai, especially in the agriculture and investment sectors,” Amer said.
Mutasim Rashed, an economic adviser at the
Egyptian Federation of Investors Associations, told the newspaper there are many fields
ripe for investment in Sinai, especially agriculture such as fish farming and the production of olives and medicinal herbs.
Economists hailed the national projects in Sinai, saying they will have a positive impact on the Egyptian economy.
“The development of Sinai is a major focus within the framework of the state’s general strategy to improve its infrastructure, provide new job opportunities for the youth and attract investors,” economist Rashad Abdo, head of the Egyptian Forum for Economic and Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor.
“The development of Sinai is an important means to fight terrorism,” Abdo added.
North Sinai has witnessed a number of
terror attacks since 2012, when late President Mohammed Morsi took over. After he was ousted in 2013, the attacks gradually decreased.
“Sisi has made an infrastructure revolution in Sinai to link it to the rest of the country after it was a hub for terrorists,” Abdou said, adding that Sinai will soon be inhabited by millions of Egyptians in search of a better future.
Among the
projects implemented in North Sinai in the last two years are the construction of 11 integrated residential agricultural development clusters, the new city of Rafah, the construction of a desalination plant in el-Arish city and the an industrial complex in the Jafafa area.
Passant Fahmy, an economist and member of parliament's economic affairs committee, told Al-Monitor that such mega-projects send an important message both inside and outside Egypt.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/or...urate-sinai-projects-economy-coronavirus.html
This nullifies all those fallacies in the OP article..that suit some wishful thinkers..