CAIRO | Cairo Expo City | On hold

whizz_pat said:

Wow that is an inovative design.

Just how strong is demand for conference centres and business hotels at the moment in Egypt?

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Egypt signed 33 agreements worth $ 2.6 billion during 2008

Egypt signed 33 cooperation agreements with development partners and various funding institutions worth $2.6 billion during fiscal year 2007/2008.

Twelve agreements worth $1.2 billion were signed with the European Union, the United States, Canada, Japan, Spain, Germany, the Islamic Development Bank, the World Bank and the Arab Fund for Economic Development. The cooperation agreements included 12 easy loans worth $1.4 billion, signed with the Arab Fund, the African Development Bank, the Kuwaiti Fund for Development, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund, Germany, Spain and Austria.

The funds went to the sectors of electricity, energy, housing, oil, health, population, education, small enterprises, agriculture, irrigation, culture and many others. The European Union offered around 52 percent of the total funds offered to Egypt with total assistance reaching $1.37 billion. – MENA

Average yield slips on Egyptian 7-day deposits

The average yield at a 7-day deposit auction on Tuesday was 11.574 percent, down a fraction from 11.576 percent at last week's auction, the central bank of Egypt said.

The bank had asked for LE 15 billion ($2.72 billion) and received bids for deposits worth LE 25.9 billion. It accepted bids worth LE 20.84 billion at rates between 11.55 percent and 11.59 percent compared with 11.51 percent and 11.59 percent at the previous auction. –Reuters

Prices of readymade clothes will be reduced by 20 pct

The Egyptian Garments and Apparel Producers Association is likely to reduce the prices of readymade products by 15-20 percent within the coming weeks to lift the burden on the consumer prior to the recession that followed the global financial crisis.

According to Yahia Zanaeri, the head of the association, the prices will be reduced after setting a mechanism that will allow the local industry to benefit from the decline of textile and yarn prices abroad, provided that the Egyptian customs will not apply exaggerated indicative prices. In addition, there is a necessity to take the appropriate measures to restrict the quantity of smuggled goods that form 50 percent of the market, especially the Chinese goods that enter the country with Arab certifications of origin to secure custom exemptions.

The association asked the concerned authorities to define quick precautions to protect this intensive labor industry so as to reduce the price of textile and readymade clothes, as well as abolishing customs duties on imported yarn, and allowing the tradesmen to import the needed fabrics. Eighty percent of the fabric producers are small structures that can not afford importation, hence resort to smuggled goods. – Tegara Net

Egyptian-American Scholars Association honors NRC chief

The Association of Egyptian-American Scholars in the US and Canada 2008 Award went to Dr Hani El Nazer, head of the National Research Center (NRC). At a function held at the Egyptian Diplomatic Club Monday evening, El Nazer was honored for his efforts in promoting cooperation among Egyptian scientists abroad, updating scientific research institutions' management techniques and giving a stimulus to research schemes in the centre.

A number of professors took part in the celebration that was organized at the end of the 35th Egyptian-American Scholars Annual Conference that took place in Caro under the theme "Strategies and a Vision for Modern Education". –MENA

TMG Holding says it has not taken steps to buy the Grand Hyatt

TMG Holding announced that so far the company has not taken any steps to buy the Grand Hyatt hotel, and that the company is studying potential investment opportunities, which include, but are not limited to, the Grand Hyatt, the company said on a statement posted on the Egyptian Stock Exchange website.

Cairo qualified to be international center for exhibitions

Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid and China’s visiting State Council Executive vice Premier Li Keqiang laid down the foundation stone for a five-star hotel to be established as part of the Egyptian government’s new project: Cairo Expo City.

Rachid had said on Dec. 26 this year that Cairo is actively preparing to again be the leading convention and exhibition center in northern Africa and Middle East.

The hotel will be bankrolled by a $70 million soft loan offered by China, Rachid said. The hotel, to comprise 396 rooms, will be built within two years by a Chinese company in tandem with Egypt’s Arab Contractors Company.

Cairo Expo City will be established over an area of 400,000 square meters. Cairo Expo City will also include a new hotel, shopping malls and office blocks to support the exhibitions activities. Some $300 million will be allocated for the project the first stage of which will be finalized in October 2011. The first stage will accomplish 60 percent of the project, Rachid said. The objective of the construction of the Cairo Expo City is to make Egypt a regional hub for international exhibitions and conventions.

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For the past few years, show organizers who set their sights on the Middle East focused on the oil-rich United Arab Emirates to launch their shows.

Times have started to change, with new venues being built in other countries around the region, such as Egypt, Qatar and Bahrain.

Each of these locales hopes to grab a piece of the Middle East tradeshow pie by offering state-of-the art convention and meeting facilities.

A new convention center will open in 2011 at Cairo Expo City, located in Cairo, Egypt’s Nasr City between the airport and the city’s central district, with 100,000 square meters (1,076,391 square feet) of exhibit space, a 5,000-seat auditorium and a 30-story, 600-room hotel.

“Cairo is, with this new project, actively preparing to be the leading convention and exhibition center in Northern Africa and the Middle East,” said Tom Dahl-Hansen, executive adviser to the chairman of Cairo Expo City and the General Organization for Intl. Exhibitions & Fairs.

He added, “Cairo Expo City aims to be one of the best exhibition and convention centers in the world, maybe not in size, but in uniqueness, combined with ancient landmarks and leisure activities.”

According to Dahl-Hansen, five international architects competed to design the project. Zaha Hadid, from the United Kingdom, won.

The building’s design is inspired by the natural topography of the Nile Valley, Hadid said.

“As the exhibition spaces require the greatest degree of flexibility, we wanted to ensure that all the public spaces and formal composition of Cairo Expo City relate to the surrounding Egyptian landscape,” he added. The Shanghai-based Shanghai Construction Group will construct the project, with additional financing provided by the Chinese government, according to Dahl-Hansen.

The Cairo Expo City campus, run by the government-owned General Organization for Intl. Exhibitions & Fairs, also includes the existing Cairo Intl. Convention and Exhibition Centre and Cairo Fairgrounds, which offer nearly 35,000 sq. m. (376,736 sq. ft.) of additional exhibition space.

“Both the Fairgrounds and CICC (already) have a hectic program of national and international exhibitions and events,” Dahl-Hansen said.

Two of the largest tradeshows currently held at the fairgrounds and CICC include the Cairo Intl. Fair and Cairo Book Fair, which use around 60,000 sq. m. (645,834 sq. ft.) of exhibit space and draw more than 2 million visitors during a 10-day period each year.

“In spite of the financial crisis in the world, the exhibition and convention market in Egypt is still fast growing,” Dahl-Hansen said, “and it seems (to have) no sign for any slowdown. Egypt is the largest consumer market in the Middle East, with 78.7 million inhabitants, the second largest economy in Africa.”

Another country looking to catch the eye of tradeshow organizers is Qatar.

Slated to open in Doha, Qatar, in 2011, the Qatar Natl. Convention Centre not only will boast 177,000 sq. m. (1,905,212 sq. ft.) of space, but, if all goes well, it also will obtain the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certification.

Currently, there is just one LEED-certified convention center in the world that is rated gold, the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh.

“In terms of its environmentally sustainable construction, the venue is on course to achieve gold status under the LEED green building rating system,” said Paul D’Arcy, general manager of the QNCC.

Some of the center’s green features will be state-of-the-art systems for water savings, energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality, as well as solar panels on the roof.

“To capitalize on Doha’s endless sunshine, (more than) 3,600 sq. m. (37,850 sq. ft.) of solar panels on the center’s roof will produce 12.5 percent of our total energy requirements,” D’Arcy said.

The QNCC, managed by AEG Ogden, already has lured several conventions its way:

World Petroleum Congress
Intl. Conference on Environment Mutagens and Human Population
Middle East Turbomachinery Symposium
According to D’Arcy, he and his team also are working to attract more than 55 prospective regional and international events from a wide range of medical, scientific and technology-based fields they hope to book at the center through 2021.

Even then, he added, there’s still room for growth.

“The tradeshow industry is still in its infancy (in Qatar) and offers tremendous potential for organizers,” D’Arcy said.

Just north of Qatar is Bahrain, which will have its own new convention and tradeshow facility, the 145,000 sq. m. (1,560,767 sq. ft.) [email protected], to show off in 2013.

As part of its plan to attract as much business as possible, Debbie Stanford-Kristiansen, former deputy CEO of the Bahrain Exhibition & Convention Authority, was hired as CEO of the new venue.

“I am honored by the exciting opportunity to take the helm of the new exhibition and convention center,” Stanford-Kristiansen said.

[email protected] will be part of a larger development called @bahrain.

“What @bahrain as a whole has to offer is very compelling,” Stanford-Kristiansen said. “Exhibition, meeting and hospitality facilities, some of the world’s finest retail brands and restaurants and varying entertainment elements, all of which will make for a more vibrant destination for exhibitions and conventions.”

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