Emaar Properties, the Dubai-based real estate company, Saturday defeated the other two bidders to win the right to develop a big seaside tourism project in north Egypt, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.

Emaar offered a bidding price at one billion Egyptian pounds ( about 174 million U.S. dollars) and outbid the other two Egyptian companies, namely Orascom Hotels and Development and Talaat Mustafa Firm.

With the win, Emaar will be authorized to develop the first phase of a giant tourism project, which was located in the Mediterranean city of Sidi Abdel Rahman, about 350 northwest of Cairo.

The first-phase project, with an area of 6.2 million square meters, would include 9,000 residential units, two five-star hotels, a marina, luxury golf grounds, shopping centers and sports facilities.

Emaar Egypt said that the company planned to spend 10 billion Egyptian pounds (about 1.7 billion dollars) to develop the site and put it into operation within five years.

The project is aimed at developing and reconstructing Sidi Abdel-Rahman area and turning the northern coast of Egypt into an international tourist resort, said MENA.

The tourism industry was considered the bread and butter of the Egyptian economy. Egypt ranked the 28th biggest tourism destination.

Egypt received 8.6 million tourists in 2005, 6 percent up from 8.1 million in 2004, and tourists spent some 6.5 billion dollars in the year.

Emaar is the largest overseas investor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with a portfolio of projects topping some 84 billion U.S. dollars.

The company has launched major developments in a number of countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and Tunisia.

Source: Xinhua