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Proposal to rent Egypt monuments refused
 [Egypt Independent] The Finance Ministry's recent proposal to rent out the country's key monuments, including the pyramids in Giza, to fund the current deficit in state budget has outraged archaeologists, cultural activists and the Ministry of State of Antiquities.Adel Abdel Sattar, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in an interview on Wednesday with the privately owned ONTV channel that he often gets proposals for overseas exhibits, where selected objects are loaned under specific guidelines. "But is it possible that we rent our monuments? ... This is our heritage, our roots." He explained that earlier this month he received a request from the Finance Ministry to study a proposal to rent out monuments, such as the Giza pyramids, the Sphinx, the Abu Simbel Temple and the temples of Luxor, to international tourism companies as part of a usufruct arrangement from three to five years. The request stated that this could generate up to US$200 billion in revenue for the state. The proposal letter, which Egypt Independent obtained a copy of, verifies that the religious website "Al-Ketab al-Mounir" (The Enlightened Book) emailed the Finance Ministry the proposition made by one of its intellectuals named Abdallah Mahfouz as a "quick solution to the current financial crisis our beloved Egypt is undergoing." The proposal did not indicate a specific country or company behind the offer, and mentioned no details of what the usufruct agreement might entail, apart from specifying the heritage sites and monuments of interest and the lucrative amount of US$200 billion. Despite his objection to the proposal, Abdel Sattar opted to get official legal consultancy from the Ministry of State of Antiquities. Based on that, he called for a meeting with the council's board. The legal advice from the ministry suggested that heritage sites are owned by the state, and profits from them are public funds that may not be exploited through a usufruct arrangement. The board unanimously refused the offer and sent their response to the Finance Ministry on 26 February. Posted by: Fred 2013-03-01 |
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