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Egypt announces $35B deal with UAE to buy premium Mediterranean area
- 1024core 3y agoSatellite view: https://maps.app.goo.gl/f6s7wPMYa2LiNrB79 https://maps.app.goo.gl/f6s7wPMYa2LiNrB79 There is almost _nothing_ there currently.
- 1letterunixname 3y agoWhile it's a notch better than buying up Africa for pollution-rationalizing "carbon offsets", it still seems like wholesale gentrification.
- 7thaccount 3y agoI don't know why any country would ever sell land under any circumstances. I'm thinking of Seward's Folly and the Louisiana Purchase.
- loeg 3y agoThe article goes into Egypt's motivations. Also: this is a lot less land than either of those deals.
- koolba 3y agoIf you can’t defend it, getting some gold now vs losing it for nothing later is not that tough a sell. There was no way for France to defend the westward lands so it was either take the deal, or have them grab it. This doesn’t look like a straight purchase either. They’re selling the development rights and it would still be Egypt jurisdiction.
- chimeracoder 3y ago> There was no way for France to defend the westward lands so it was either take the deal, or have them grab it. There was nothing to defend. France didn't control the land. It was inhabited by Native Americans; the "sale" was actually a treaty stipulating that France would not oppose the US attempting to expand westward by seizing that land from Native Americans, and also that France would nominally oppose any other colonial power attempting to seize that land (which never happened).
- Svip 3y agoSometimes countries need cash, and maintaining the land is not worth it, and someone is willing to buy. Should Denmark have sold the Virgin Islands in 1917? It was put to a referendum, and the people said yes. Napoleon also needed cash, so he sold a lot of useless land in North America to a willing buyer.
- 1123581321 3y agoThe territory sizes of the countries haven’t changed. It’s a 65/35% development partnership.
- appleiigs 3y agoYes, it's similar to someone buying land in California. You still "own" the land, but it's still in United States. Ras el-Hekma is still in Egypt. It just happens to be owned by UAE.
- konschubert 3y agoWhy not? You can be a very successful country on very little land. And if you get money, you can invest it.
- renewiltord 3y agoDude, bad news but Bytedance owns an office in San Jose. Can't believe the US would sell land like that. All land should be owned by the community and developed under Sixth People's Congress Local 718 according to the Four Year Plan laid out.
- diggan 3y ago> I don't know why any country would ever sell land under any circumstances Me neither, but that's not what happened here. They're "selling" the development of the area, not the land itself. At least as far as I understand the article.
- nicklecompte 3y agoI believe it is a "sale" but that hardly means it becomes the UAE's sovereign territory! It means the UAE is diversifying their economy into absentee landlordism - it is totally valid for Egyptians to question if their government should get into this kind of commercial entanglement instead of selling that land to Egyptian developers, but it's hardly treason.
- lupusreal 3y agoThe Louisiana purchase was extremely savvy of France! They scarcely controlled it in the first place and couldn't afford the money or manpower to defend their claim to it. Instead of losing it in a war and getting some people killed in the process, they instead got paid for something they hardly even owned in practice. Extremely smart move.
- dukeyukey 3y ago1. Egypt isn't actually 'selling' the land like Louisiana was bought. It's selling it the same way someone's house was sold to them, or how McDonald's buys the land their restaurants sit on. 2. Taking Alaska as an example, there was a real risk Russia would be in a war with the UK again. If that happened, Alaska was completely indefensible. SO better get money for it now than lose it later.
- popol12 3y agoAnyone got a map ?
- aaronbrethorst 3y agoLMG(M)TFY: Ra's al Ḩikmah https://maps.app.goo.gl/MroKuinLGRRr9ybF9?g_st=ic https://maps.app.goo.gl/MroKuinLGRRr9ybF9?g_st=ic
- rpozarickij 3y agoI've never seen (M) in LMGTFY. What does it mean?
- defrost 3y agoIn this context, with that link (M) -> (Map) as Let Me Google (Map) That For You It's a cute twist on an o/wise insufferable acronym.
- aaronbrethorst 3y agoutterly insufferable indeed. I'm glad you were amused by it :)
- joshmarinacci 3y agoNote that this is a development deal. The territory is still a part of Egypt. Bad headline
- kurthr 3y agoIt's kind strange they used buy rather than develop. I do also wonder how access will be controlled to this area, because it doesn't have the look of something that has a lot of low cost housing.
- dylan604 3y agoI think this might be the first time in forever that I've read anything about development in the Middle East and low cost housing. It's all about decadence and the ridiculousness amounts of money involved
- brianwawok 3y agoNot going to make the news here when UAE builds a 100 unit 1 bed apartment building. But the tallest building in the world, or a ski resort in the desert? Sign us up
- freedomben 3y agoRight. There is of course plenty of low cost housing in the UAE, but it's not going to make the front page of HN when they open a new apartment complex. Dubai is definitely a high-cost-of-living with extravagance abound, but it's also helped to turn them into an international destination. Just Spending time in the Dubai airport is a fascinating experience if you get the change. It's the most diverse (and by that I don't mean skin color, though of course that is reflected, but I mean all types of different people from all over the world) environment I think I've ever been in.
- chgs 3y agoJust try to avoid kissing your same sex partner in public.
- aszantu 3y agoincidentally there's natural gas reserves in the mediterrenean sea, which are being developed by israel, europe needs cheap gas, so it's a good fit I guess. Just not sure where UAE stands except they're Americas friends... https://www.engineerlive.com/content/update-israeli-natural-gas-industry https://www.engineerlive.com/content/update-israeli-natural-...
- notatoad 3y agothis appears to just be UAE investing in a real estate developent, they're not claiming territory or mining rights.
- patcon 3y agoIn case anyone is wondering, it seems it's $35B for land approx to the highway running by this approx right angle triangle of coast: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Wvh44SKibJ3JpAQx9 https://maps.app.goo.gl/Wvh44SKibJ3JpAQx9 170M m² = 170 km² ~= 18km * 18km (coastlines) / 2 (bisected)
- speedylight 3y agoThis is a co-venture of Egypt, they’re not selling a part of their land.
- bilsbie 3y agoGOOD Point by my wife: How come countries don’t buy and sell land to each other more frequently? It seems like it could help with budgets or simply putting land under more productive use. For example I bet Japan could do a lot with that big island just north of it (or even kamchucha)
- untech 3y agoHaha, are you talking about Sakhalin? Russia would never sell it, it has imperial/geopolitical significance.
- eastbound 3y agoAlaska was sold in 1867 from Russia, and USA also has had eyes on Greenland since 1867.
- poilcn 3y agoAlaska was sold cause Russian Empire couldn't hold the land and eventually would've lost it. The islands north to Japan are important cause the access from sea ports to the ocean in winter. Plus, if they were Japanese, they'd have American bases there and there wouldn't be a way for the submarines to leave ports without being tracked.
- huytersd 3y agoBecause selling off your land is probably the worst thing you could do. It’s about as short term as short term thinking gets. I’m not well versed in this area but I’m sure Russia regrets its sale of Alaska.
- rand1239 3y agoI mean the whole point of a country is people having emotional attachment to random areas defined in a map. If you can buy and sell land that easy, the whole concept of country goes away.
- wslh 3y agoIt is very dangerous, even licensing it. Argentina has given strategic land to China where Argentina cannot control: Espacio Lejano Station [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espacio_Lejano_Station?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espacio_Lejano_Station?wprov=s...
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- Ozzie_osman 3y agoThe article kind of touches on this, but doesn't expose how bad it was: Egypt's economy was in very dire state before this. The official exchange rate was around 30 EGP to the dollar, but in the parallel market, it was 70. And it was very hard to get any foreign currency at all, meaning anything imported (or anything requiring imports in its supply chain) wasn't available. Think appliances, building materials, cars, etc. All of this meant massive inflation, broken supply chains, lots of uncertainty, etc. This gives Egypt a few years of breathing room. Ultimately, most economists agree that the country is overspending (new capital, lots of road infrastructure, etc), has the military playing too big a role in economy/politics, has unsustainable subsidies, etc, and unless the root causes are solved, this just kicks the can down the road a few years.