Ihab George, president of the General Group, announced he is working to establish a new company to help spur tourism in Sudan. He said agreements had been signed with a number of foreign companies to organise three trips a year from European nations.

George, who has lived in Sudan for two years, said that the group includes consulting agencies that conduct studies on economic performance measures and that currently a number of investment opportunities exist in the country. He added that any claims that Sudan was unsafe or unstable were untrue and that a number of Egyptian companies working in the country are recording large profits.

He added that Sudan includes a number of historical monuments and that his company was working to organise joint trips to both Egypt and Sudan, with tourists visiting the former and then the latter, or the opposite, in conjunction with a number of other Egyptian companies.

Sudan allows for Egyptians, and no one else, to enter and live in the country without imposing upon them any work requirements, he added. He pointed to other measures which would work to deepen the relationship between the two countries, such as a Sudanese investment law that will allow for Egyptian companies to work tax-free in Sudan for a total of five years.