The Ministry of Agriculture received three proposals from Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal to resolve the dispute over 100,000 acres in Toshka that were allegedly allocated to his company, Kingdom Agricultural Development, in violation of the law.
The minister formed a technical committee to study the proposals before Talal meets with Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces, next week to discuss this issue.
“The prince does not want to have disputes with the Egyptian government, given the brotherly relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia,” said Talal’s representative, Mohamed Gamal Eddin.
One proposal is to put the company up in an Initial Public Offering on the stock market exclusively for Egyptians to buy. Another is to relinquish the land in return for all reclamation expenses that the company has incurred, while the third is to donate half the land to the 25 January Revolution Youth Coalition and keep the other half to cultivate with strategic crops and within set timetables.
Ministry sources projected the government would accept the third option.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
