The Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade and the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities of Egypt signed on an agreement with UAE's LuLu Group to establish new hypermarkets in differing parts of Cairo. On behalf of Egyptian government, Dr Ibrahim Ashmawy, Deputy Minister of Internal Trade and Chairman of Internal Trade Development Authority (ITDA) of Egypt, Enf Tarek El Sebaiy, Deputy Minister of Housing signed the agreement with Yusuff Ali, Chairman of UAE's LuLu Group International in the presence of Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister of Egypt along with Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali al-Meselhi, and Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities Assem Al-Gazzar at the cabinet HQ in Cairo. Under these contracts, four projects will be built by the Urban Communities Authority within 12 months, with Lulu Group starting to manage and operate the projects in a period of 3 to 6 months from the date of completion of the construction in New Cairo, 6th October City and El Obour said Internal Trade Minister Al Al Meselhi. This is as part of the government's plan to attract foreign investments, he added. Apart from this, LuLu is also finalizing plans to set up another 6 Hypermarkets and 4 mini markets with other developers from the private sector. Lulu is also in final stages of discussion with the government to enter the wholesale market for vegetables and fruits and a Logistics Center to supports its retail activities in the country. "When we started thinking about investing in Egypt, we had a plan to pump only $100 million, but today we finalized plans to invest $500 million to establish a number of hypermarkets and minimarkets, providing 8,000 sustainable jobs for the Egyptians" Chairman and Managing Director of LuLu Group Youssef Ali said. At present, LuLu has one hypermarket in the capital Cairo where it employs more than 500 Egyptians. — SG
