Cairo – Mubasher: The investment ministry has signed a cooperation protocol with the agriculture ministry to construct a sugar factory and reclaim 181.8 acres in the Upper Egypt governorate of Minya.

The total cost of the two projects amounted to $1 billion (EGP 17.68 billion), according to Middle East News Agency (MENA).

The new projects would narrow the shortage of sugar production and step up cultivating other crops, agriculture minister Abdel Monem El Bana said.

With $450 million in investments, the sugar factory would create around 200,000 direct and indirect job opportunities, El Bana added.

Investment minister Sahar Nasr noted that the plant would cover 80% of sugar production shortage, which in return saves foreign currency.