Major General Atef Moftah, the General Supervisor of the Grand Egyptian Museum project, has announced that an initial budget of EGP 350 million ($22 million) has been allocated to finance the opening ceremony of the Grand Egyptian Museum. Moftah said that about 96 per cent of the museum’s construction and engineering work has been completed, and that the remaining construction will be completed after the return of air traffic. Moftah added that presentations are currently being evaluated for companies that have submitted to take over the organisation of the ceremony.

The first is Emirati-Italian-Egyptian alliance and another is the Egyptian-Emirati-American alliance. The winning alliance will be announced after two months. It was announced that the museum would be opened at the end of this year, but President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has directed that it be postponed to next year due to the corona crisis.

The party’s budget sparked anger on social media because of its high cost, while Egyptians are suffering from underfunding on education and health, and an increase in the annual budget deficit which rose at the end of September to $109.3 billion.