Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris’ Orascom invests $12.7 million in Giza pyramids

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris’ Orascom Investment has signed a deal worth $12.7 million (200 million Egyptian pounds) to provide sound and light shows at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

Sawiris said that Orascom has long been interested in participating in developing both the area and the shows, as the site has undergone little development since 1961, Arab News reported.

Sawiris signed the deal through Orascom Pyramids, an arm of Orascom Investment.

The state-run Egypt Company for Sound, Light and Cinema will receive 17 percent of the revenues from the project, with a minimum of $2.3 million (36 million Egyptian pounds) annually.

Tourism is an essential component of Egypt’s economy. In 2018, the sector provided $24.83 billion (389 billion Egyptian pounds) in revenue for the country. However, since the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the government has lost billions of dollars in income as the global lockdown shut down the influx of tourists to the country.

In July 2020, Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany said that Egypt “lost around $1 billion per month,” BBC News reported.

However, Sawiris is optimistic that the tourism sector would partially recover in the last quarter of the year with the new deal.