Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris defended his brother Samih Sawiris following outrage after Samih announced he would suspend his investment in Egypt.
Samih, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Orascom Development, referred to the suspension of investments at the present time in Egypt due to the economic conditions and the high exchange rate of the US dollar.
“People should not assume bad faith in a family or in a person or individual like me or Samih when we say anything,” Naguib explained in a telephone interview on Al-Hadath Al-Youm channel and in a post on his official page on Twitter.
“Many investors today are afraid [to invest in Egypt] because we do not know what the price of the dollar will be like tomorrow,” he added.
“What he said is nothing wrong. What he said is true with our experience and based on our discussions with other investors. When we come to prepare a new feasibility study, we have an element that we cannot put in the equation, which is the price of the dollar,” Naguib added.
“We are a family that loves the country, Egypt more than ourselves. [Samih] cannot have had any intention but good intention toward Egypt when he said this… he has the most projects in Egypt,” he stressed.
