Satellite image of the tip of the Ras El-Hekma peninsula, Egypt, on March 14.
Source: Image © Planet Labs PBCWhat Does the UAE Get for Its $35 Billion Investment in Egypt?
Egypt’s undeveloped Mediterranean coastline is the deal’s main focus. Yet the huge financial injection also speaks to Abu Dhabi’s strategic aims.
On a clear winter’s day earlier this year, those living on the vast Egyptian headland of Ras El-Hekma who looked up from the dun-colored scrub would have seen an aircraft circling the sky. Far above, locals were told, top United Arab Emirates officials were taking a special interest in one of the Mediterranean coast’s last great wildernesses.
Weeks later, on Feb. 23, Egypt’s premier and the UAE’s investment minister stood before TV cameras at the inking of a $35 billion deal that includes turning that same location into the next big thing in global tourism. Billed as the largest foreign investment in Egypt’s history, it likely saved the ravaged economy and may have averted another major crisis in the Middle East.