Egypt’s Ministry of Trade and Industry has submitted its 30-year masterplan to the cabinet for the Golden Triangle Project, according to minister of trade Tarek Qabil in a press conference in Cairo on 8 December.

The masterplan was carried out by D’Appolonia, the Italian engineering services company that is responsible for the project.

Infrastructure works for the Golden Triangle project is set to cost around $2.3bn, Qabil told reporters

He also added that the Golden Triangle project is set to obtain annual returns of $6bn, with a required total investment of around $16bn.

The ministry also recently submitted a request to the cabinet to support the formation of an authority to serve as a single window for investors looking into the project.

The Golden Triangle project aims to take advantage of the country’s under-tapped mineral resources and develop the Upper Egypt area.

The Golden Triangle scheme is slated to include several interrelated projects including fertiliser factories, phosphate ore processing facilities and facilities to process shale and limestone as a precursor to cement.

The Golden Triangle project focuses on a triangular-shaped area of Egypt that covers 6,000 square kilometres between the towns of Edfu, south of Quena, to Marsa Alam, on the Red Sea coast, to Safaga, which is located to the north of Marsa Alam.