Egypt: Closer Than You Think

March 10, 2010

Wall Street Journal

Egyptian officials have laid out an ambitious set of economic targets for the Arab world's most populous country, hoping to recapture the fast growth of the middle of the last decade and to lift living standards.

Egyptian officials are promising 5% gross domestic product growth this year and 6% in 2011, eventually matching the growth of 7% and higher that Egypt enjoyed for three years before the global economic crisis hit in late 2008.

If Cairo is even moderately successful, it could bode well for other countries in the region. Egypt's slower economic overhauls may emerge as a sustainable model for countries in the Middle East, such as Jordan and Syria, that have big populations but little of the region's oil wealth. Dubai and other Arab states of the Persian Gulf, for years the engine for rapid growth and investment in the Mideast, now suffer weakened banks, defaults and falling property markets brought by over-reliance on global credit.

To reach its goals, the Egyptian government plans to actively seek more foreign direct investment by emphasizing the country's comparative resiliency during the economic crisis, to push tax reform by streamlining the complicated income-tax and property-tax codes, and to curb widespread nonpayment of taxes with stricter enforcement. They also aim to reduce the drag created by Egypt's socialist-era subsidy programs.

A new set of property-tax laws just took effect, preceded by months of public-service announcements on radio and television to explain the changes.

A sustained expansion is needed to help put an end to Egypt's persistent economic ills. The inflation rate has slowed only slightly from a peak of 13.3% in November. The budget deficit, weighed down by high food and fuel subsidies, consumes about 8% of gross domestic product. Unemployment stands at an official 8%, but many economists say the figure is much higher and doesn't reflect rampant underemployment.

Ragui Assaad, an Egyptian-born economics professor at the University of Minnesota, estimates that only one in four new university graduates will find substantial jobs.

"Unemployment doesn't measure intermittent work, low productivity work or below-subsistence-level incomes," he says.

Few observers expect an easy path to growth. A recent report by the government's General Authority of Investment describes major structural obstacles to having economic policies benefit the majority of the population. It says that much of the foreign direct investment coming into the country targets the petroleum and financial sectors, which don't create large numbers of jobs. It also highlights policies such as fuel subsidies, which help big businesses keep costs low in factories and help trim car owners' household budgets, but don't help most people.

Economists inside and outside the country have criticized Egypt's education system for failing to provide job skills for a fast-growing youth population.

The government's past successes, however, offer reason for hope.

For several years, a small cadre of economic reformers, working under President Hosni Mubarak and his son, Gamal, pushed to liberalize Egypt's creaking, state-dominated economy. Overhauls focused on reducing bureaucratic red tape for business owners and foreign investors, as well as on privatizing or selling several state-owned banks and industrial companies. The process had its critics, but succeeded in pushing Egypt to growth peaks.

Things came unhinged in 2008, however, as the expansion stoked inflation and triggered unrest in some places, including the so-called bread riots in Cairo and in several rural cities in the Nile Delta.

Foreign direct investment fell to about $8.1 billion in the fiscal year ended June 2009 from a peak of $13.2 billion the previous year, according to the central bank. Suez Canal receipts fell to $4.74 billion for the year from a record high of $5.1 billion, says Suez Canal Authority Chairman Ahmed Ali Fadel. Tourism and remittances from workers overseas also slumped. Critics also complained that too much economic power was concentrated in the hands of an oligarchy with deep ties to the Mubarak family. The following global economic downturn further worsened the economy.

But last month, Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin said Egypt is optimistic again, setting a $10 billion target for FDI this year. Suez receipts rose 6.6% to nearly $390 million in December from the previous month, government data show.

Economists had expected remittances to plunge as Egyptian expats, especially in places like Dubai, lost jobs. But many brought savings home to Egypt, boosting the local economy.

High growth "will put Egypt back on foreign investors' maps," Egyptian Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid was quoted saying in Davos.

Egypt was protected somewhat from outside shock by a largely isolated economy, especially when it comes to the country's conservative banking industry. But modest reforms also played a role. Prof. Assaad applauds the previous privatization efforts and the new campaign to boost tax income and rein in spending, particularly subsidies. Still, he says, "The underlying structural problems in the Egyptian economy remain. The big problem has always been the growth trickling down."

March 10, 2010

BBC News

Egypt's foremost Muslim cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, has died, aged 81, while on a trip to Saudi Arabia.

Sheikh Tantawi was the Grand Imam of the al-Azhar mosque and head of the al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's centre of learning and scholarship.

He died of a heart attack in the Saudi capital Riyadh, where he was attending a prize-giving ceremony.

Sheikh Tantawi had infuriated radical Islamists with his moderate views on women wearing the veil.

His body will be taken to the Saudi city of Medina, the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad, for burial, Egyptian authorities said.

An adviser to the Sheikh told Egyptian television Sheikh Tantawi's death was a shock, as before leaving for Saudi Arabia he had seemed in "excellent shape and health".

A member of Sheikh Tantawi's office, Ashraf Hassan, told news agency Reuters that Mohamed Wasel, Sheikh Tantawi's deputy, was expected to temporarily take over leading the institution until the Egyptian president appointed a new head for the body.

Moderate views

Sheikh Tantawi was appointed to his position by Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in 1996.

But as a government appointee, he was always forced to negotiate a careful path between his religious imperatives and his government position, the BBC's Christian Fraser in Cairo says.

He was vocal in his opposition to female circumcision, which is common in Egypt, calling it "un-Islamic".

Last year, Sheikh Tantawi barred female students at the university from wearing the full-face covering niqab veil.

He also caused upset other Muslim scholars by saying that French Muslims should obey any law that France might enact banning the veil.

His views on the veil prompted Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood to accuse him of "harming the interests of Islam".

He has also condemned suicide attacks, saying extremists had hijacked Islamic principles for their own ends.

"I do not subscribe to the idea of a clash among civilizations. People of different beliefs should co-operate and not get into senseless conflicts and animosity," he told a conference in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in 2003.

"Extremism is the enemy of Islam. Whereas, jihad is allowed in Islam to defend one's land, to help the oppressed. The difference between jihad in Islam and extremism is like the earth and the sky," Sheikh Tantawi said.

March 8, 2010

Daily News Egypt
Egyptian researcher Rashika El Ridi received the UNESCO-L’Oréal Foundation award for Women in Science “for paving the way towards the development of a vaccine against the tropical parasitic disease bilharzia, which affects over 200 million people.”

El Ridi received the award at a ceremony in Paris last week. The annual L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science honors five eminent women scientists, one from each region, for excellence in research.

“The ceremony was amazing, it gave an opportunity to show the world that Egypt, the land of civilization, is progressing,” El Ridi told Daily News Egypt.

“This award is extremely important as it also sheds light on countries such as Egypt, the Philippines and Mexico and shows their contribution to science,” she added.

The annual program aims at recognizing and promoting exceptional women throughout the world for their careers in scientific research, it also works on encouraging vocations in science among young women and supporting the creation of role models for current and future generations.

“A career in science requires energy spent on excellent work and taking excellent care of one’s children and spouse,” says El Ridi. “Dedication and hard work will lead to fulfillment, a secure and respectable position, financial independence, happiness and peace,” explained El Ridi.

The program wants to distinguish exceptional women in science who are helping change the world.

Each recipient is granted $100,000.

“In my eyes the UNESCO-L’Oréal for Women in Science partnership is an innovative alliance capable of making a concrete contribution to the quest of gender inequality,” said UNESCO Secretary General Irina Bokova.

“This partnership promotes not only women. By highlighting the role women must play in scientific research, the program emphasizes the importance of science as a source of progress,” she added.

The award’s recipients are chosen by a jury of leading scientist, it is headed by Nobel Prize winner in Medicine in 1999, Gunter Blobel, and the Founding President of the Awards, Professor Christian de Duve. She also won a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1974.

“The recognition that comes with the UNESCO- L’Oréal Award is important, especially for women in developing countries; clearly it’s much easier to do science if you have wonderful labs and tremendous support,” said Blobel.

The partnership also includes the UNESCO-L’Oréal International Fellowships in which 15 fellowships are granted to young women researchers, three from each of five geo-cultural regions of UNESCO.

L’Oréal subsidiaries around the world also developed the National Fellowship Programs, with the support of the National Commissions for UNESCO.

This year, Ain Shams physics professor Hadeer El Dakhakhani was one of the fellowship’s recipients. She will study at the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of Materials in Strasbourg, France.

“Continuing my research in different countries means a lot to me. It exposes me to different cultures and points of views. I hope I will be able to give something back one day,” she said.

For the UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship, young women submit a doctorate or post-doctorate research project to the UNESCO National Commission that they propose to pursue in the life sciences at an institution outside their country of origin. The National Commission nominates the two most deserving candidates from its country to the Selection Committee in Paris, which makes a final choice of fellowship beneficiaries.

The value of the fellowship is up to $40,000 granted to each beneficiary over a two-year period.

This year marks the 12th year of the partnership, which began in 1998 and so far has awarded over 900 women from more than 80 countries.

L’Oréal says it is committed to recognizing the importance of the role of female researchers and their innovations and, to meet this challenge, it developed the For Women in Science partnership with UNESCO.

March 8, 2010

Daily News Egypt
“This is the most interesting stock market in the region,” Vera Trojan, senior vice president, partner, and equity portfolio manager for Wellington Management Company, said Sunday

“We are impressed with the efforts of the leading companies on the stock exchange, and [their] progress in transparency, disclosure and investor relations efforts,” she added.

Trojan expressed admiration for the “strong economic fundamentals of the country,” speaking at a conference with Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin.

Following meetings with potential investors in Singapore and the annual Euromoney Egypt Investor Conference in Hong Kong, Mohieldin addressed the question “Is Egypt Attractive for Investment?” before the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Cairo.

Representatives from Boston-based wealth management association Russell 20-20 joined the minister to convey how Egypt appears to large institutional investors such as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, also represented.

The chairman of the Russell 20-20 Association and Chairman of Altaira Wealth Management Michael Phillips, explained that his company’s role was to “help our hosts get a better understanding of what’s important to global institutional investors.”

“We are particularly impressed with how the country [Egypt] has evolved after the reforms of 2003 and 2004,” Trojan said, adding that Egyptian companies expanding within the region serve as useful bellwethers for foreign investors.

Meanwhile, Trojan articulated the specifics of Egypt’s précis. Listing Egypt’s solid record of growth, its positive current account balance and positive sources of foreign exchange as assets, she emphasized the large population’s potential both for consumption and building a productive labor force.

She applauded Egypt’s “strong banks” on their potential for consumer lending, before addressing Egypt’s cons: inflation, fiscal deficit, high stock of government debt and risks posed by a high unemployment rate.

Donald Raymond, senior vice president of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) investment board, spoke as an institutional investor. Although his data demonstrated that the largest share of CCP’s investments reside in foreign developed market equities at 22 percent, he said that investing in emerging markets is a growing priority.

Room for reform

Mohieldin acknowledged that many of the reforms that attract investors “would have been difficult to introduce a few years ago.”

He explained that efforts have been made in “fiscal reforms in particular, to generate sustainable funds, to work for reform of taxes implemented to generate required funding for development and growth. [Egypt is] working on…gaining credibility for maintaining the discipline required for the monetary sector.”

He spoke further about Egypt’s strengths, listing the latest inflation figures as “close to single digit” and the core inflation measure as close to the target range of 6 to 8 percent.

He addressed fears that foreign investors exploit emerging markets without offering long-term benefits in return; because Egypt is “not resource rich, investors aren’t after extraction, we have some natural gas and oil, but China and India…are mainly after the capacity of Egypt as a well-diversified economy…to be a gateway to region.”

Disappointments include Egypt’s delayed optimization of its “unique location” by not developing its ports, resulting in transaction costs remaining high.

Mohieldin lauded the financial services industry that “as a sector is growing at 8 to 12 percent, while communications and information technology is growing at 14 percent in real terms.”

“[Egypt has seen] 55 percent recovery last year after the crisis year…it is a liquid and vibrant market in general…[and has seen an] increase in net trading by 1.2 to 1.5 billion every year in the last five years.”

In his only reference to his meetings in Asia, he mentioned, “Many people I met in Hong Kong said, ‘Egypt has been there for 5,000 years. We know the history but were not interested in doing business there because of its sluggish growth in the 80s and early 90s. But with [pre-crisis] growth of 7 percent, we’re now keen to get into the country’.”

He finished by admitting, “Many of the measures are not pleasant; reforms mean bearing the pain of gains enjoyed today and in the future.”

The minister and panel responded to questions, first fielding an inquiry on whether the People’s Assembly had successfully halted the privatization process.

Mohieldin said, “We’re working on a draft law introduce to parliament to rely on the stock exchange for flotation of publicly owned companies.”

The panel was asked to give their opinions of rating companies, following the crisis and the on-going challenges in Dubai and Greece.

Phillips of Russell 20-20 answered, “Rating agencies… have a lot to answer for. I do not put the same credence to them as before the crisis.”

Vera suggested that ratings serve as a “report card,” where “you get a good grade for good performance.” In her opinion they “still have an important role to play… serve as an incentive for improving performance. The problem is not the idea, but with the rigor of the analysis.”

In response to a question about the determination of American regulators to oversee investment banks to avoid another global financial meltdown, Phillips explained the intention to “move to a new regulatory structure [of] activity-based regulation, not entity-based. Instead of bank regulators and investment bank regulators, you’d have some looking at credit, debt or derivatives, across entity barriers.”

Mohieldin expounded on the subject from an Egyptian perspective, saying “the issue of regulation is sensitive, because whatever is being said by leading countries impacts emerging markets. [We are] very much concerned… need effective regulation… [to] not micro-manage and prevent growth and mobilization of savings.

“[We] need to listen to the market and lawmakers at the same time, then develop an accurate framework of regulation that is not subject to the reaction of the general public.”

The decision to feature only Canadian and American representatives on a panel of this nature, only days after his return from Asia, seemed perhaps intended to reassure Egypt’s traditional investors in North America and Europe that Egypt has not completely given up on their slow rate of recovery in favor of Asian money.

However, the lack of dialogue on the changing landscape of foreign investors seemed pointedly west-biased, although the market itself has shifted decidedly eastward.

March 5, 2010

Egypt’s Ambassador to the United States, H.E. Sameh Shoukry, visited the US Naval Academy on March 4, 2010, to address the Academy’s midshipmen on Egypt-US relations and recent developments in the Middle East.

In his lecture at the Academy’s Chauvenet 100 Hall, Ambassador Shoukry reiterated Egypt’s commitment to further strengthening its strategic partnership with the US, adding that Egypt brings unique strengths to this partnership with its large valuable human resources, its diverse well-known political and cultural impact on the Middle East, as well as its geo-strategic location and control of the most important waterways in the world. Ambassador Shoukry said that the chances of increasing areas of cooperation and understanding between the two countries were extremely high given the Obama Administration’s efforts to deal with global issues on the basis of dialogue, cooperation and mutual respect.

Ambassador Shoukry highlighted the military-to-military aspects of the Egypt-US relationship, stressing that bilateral military cooperation is strong and diverse. “Being a key partner to the US in the Middle East, Egypt is capable of promoting effectively the shared goals of peace and stability, not only in the immediate region but also in Southwest Asia, the horn of Africa and beyond.” Shoukry concluded that it was therefore natural that Egypt maintain a strong military force to carry out regional responsibilities and assist in defending shared interests.”

The Egyptian Ambassador expressed Egypt’s appreciation for the US military assistance it receives. He stressed that this assistance contributes to the pursuit of a suitable and modernized Egyptian military and bolsters Egypt’s ability to modernize its armed forces, thereby continuing to serve the ultimate goals of peace and stability.

Turning to regional issues, Ambassador Shoukry reaffirmed Egypt’s commitment to achieving comprehensive peace in the Middle East. “We have consistently upheld our peace accord with Israel, and we are re-doubling our efforts to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for all peoples of the Middle East,” he added. The Ambassador clarified that what Egypt is advocating, through its talks with all the relevant parties, is the need to demonstrate a political will committed to achieving peace, rather than aimless tactical maneuvering that prolongs the suffering of both peoples and forces Palestinians to continue to live under occupation. In Egypt’s view, “the human suffering in Gaza is enormous and unacceptable.”

On the Iranian nuclear issue, the Egyptian Ambassador said that while Egypt supports the international community’s efforts to fully verify the nature of Iran’s nuclear ventures, the question of Israel’s nuclear capabilities and its continuing rejection to accede to the NPT comes to light and needs to be properly addressed. “One standard must apply to all. Israel must adhere fully to the NPT, Iran must cooperate fully with the IAEA; hence a nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East becomes a reality.”

Ambassador Shoukry ended his speech by repeating that the US and Egypt are an asset to each other, adding “we will exert our utmost not only to safeguard it, but to lift it to elevated levels for the sake of our nations and peoples.”

The Egyptian Ambassador, who was accompanied by the Egyptian military attaché and Embassy staff, met with the Academy’s Superintendent Vice Admiral Jeffrey Fowler and political science professors at the Academy. All parties expressed a genuine interest in strengthening relations between the Egyptian and US Naval Academies. Ambassador Shoukry invited Vice Admiral Fowler to visit Egypt to explore means of enhancing this cooperation in the near future.

Address by H.E. Sameh Shoukry, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt at the U.S. Naval Academy
"Egypt - U.S. Relations and Recent Developments in the Middel East"
March 4, 2010

Good evening,

It is my distinct pleasure to be here today among the officers, servicemen and cadets of the United States Navy. Naval forces are traditionally at the front lines in defense of national security, in countering any impending threats and pursuing global security. This is definitely amplified in the case of a global actor like the United States with its most impressive naval capability, not only in terms of hardware but certainly also in the quality, training and commitment that all personnel of the Navy continue to demonstrate.

The young cadets here today are surely the seeds of future American pride, and an addition to the long history of U.S. dedication to realizing global peace and security. I salute you all; and I would like to thank in particular Professor Brannon Wheeler for organizing this wonderful visit.

Let me start by stressing that we are committed to our two countries’ strategic partnership. We have consistently worked on sustaining Egyptian-American relations and remain adamant in our efforts aimed at strengthening it even further. The shared conviction of the central role this relationship plays in our continuing efforts to stabilize the Middle East region has been the main engine behind increased cooperation.

Egypt brings unique strengths to this partnership, with its large valuable human resources, along with its diverse well known political and cultural impact on the Middle East. It’s geo-strategic location and control of one of the most important waterways in the world is also another testament to its value added contribution. In short, the role we continue to assume in the task of addressing tensions and promoting peace indeed provides the U.S. a strong proponent to advance common policies and objectives in the region.

This long-standing relationship has undoubtedly over the years witnessed times of converging views and approaches as regards the necessary means to achieve our common objectives. It also, at other times, had to deal with discrepancies in view or approaches. It is to the benefit of both our countries to have been able to deal with such situations on the basis of mutual respect and a common commitment to the strategic nature of our partnership, and its equally beneficial nature. It is this resilience and depth of our relations that guarantees that we will remain steadfast in our efforts to continue to develop and strengthen the bonds between us.

As the current administration strives to deal with global issues on the basis of dialogue, cooperation and mutual respect, we are greatly optimistic of increasing areas of understanding. In fact, clear indications of an improved bilateral relationship have been evident, with numerous diplomatic exchanges. President’s Obama’s visit to Cairo in June 2009 was a key milestone, along with President Mubarak’s trip to Washington last August, a first in over five years. More recently, the two governments held their annual strategic dialogue.

The choice of Cairo by President Obama to deliver his historic speech to the Arab and Muslim world is highly appreciated. It is a further demonstration of the special relationship that exists between us; as well as a recognition of Egypt’s unique political, economic, social and cultural role in the regional context and beyond. The speech brought enormous hope to the region, and granted a long-awaited desire for a restoration of the historical and deep ties between the two societies. It was also a message that reached out to all arenas of conflict with dialogue and reconciliation from a perspective of moral strength.

We view American interests in the Middle East and beyond as not being limited to the pursuit of securing global energy needs, combating radicalism that may impact the American homeland, or mere economic interests. But, as reflected in President Obama’s Cairo speech, these interests are well grounded in a genuine refocusing of efforts towards a more collaborative world order based on the rule of law and justice. Such policies and objectives are wholeheartedly supported by us.

There is indeed an abundance of common incentives for our two countries to double cooperation and strengthen dialogue in the future. Together, we will both remain engaged in developing relations with a focused eye on safeguarding the long term interests of the region.

I must stress that an essential element in this relationship is the military-to-military cooperation which I would like to briefly address.

As we both face many of the same challenges, it is imperative that cooperation between a world leader and the region’s largest state will contribute in attaining our shared objectives. Being a key partner to the U.S. in the Middle East, Egypt is capable of promoting effectively the shared goals of peace and stability, not only in the immediate region but also in Southwest Asia, the horn of Africa and beyond. It is therefore natural that Egypt should maintain a strong military force to carry out regional responsibilities and assist in defending shared interests.

In that context, U.S. military assistance is highly appreciated, something that contributes to pursuing a suitable, modernized and balanced military. It, in turn, boosts our effectiveness in continuing to serve the ultimate goals of peace and stability. And speaking of modernizing Egyptian forces, it is worthy to note that we are already more than half-way through the modernization plan, continuing to integrate U.S. military equipment as aging weapons are retired. This is a recognized priority so as to increase the synergy between our armed forces there by providing greater effectiveness in fields of cooperation.

Furthermore, an integral part of our military cooperation is training. In preparing our military personnel to operate and maintain U.S. systems, Egypt has sent officers to train at U.S. military institutions. This is definitely key to the professional development of the Egyptian military. In addition, it has created strong ties of personal friendships and mutual understanding of our respective cultures and the commonalities that exist in our value systems.

In addition to that, periodic joint training exercises that have continued for years have enhanced the interoperability and coordination between Egyptian and American armed forces. In that regard, the successive multinational “Bright Star” exercises are very beneficial to all participants as well as the US CENTCOM; as all parties train and learn to operate under challenging circumstances.

Another subset of this military cooperation is the security dimension, with continued intelligence cooperation and a coordinated approach to combating the threat of extremism in the Middle East.

Furthermore, the United States is provided access to vital air and sea routes through Egypt. For example, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, Egypt expedited about 1300 U.S. Naval transits through the Suez Canal, and provided security support for the U.S. ships passing. This, in addition to providing over flight permission to approximately 45,000 military aircrafts.

Indeed, Egypt’s importance is further accentuated as it has a coastline that extends on the Mediterranean and Red seas for almost 4,000 kilometers and controls a strategic waterway, namely the Suez Canal, being of crucial importance to international trade movement as well as strategic sea lifts.

Furthermore, on another field of cooperation to promote mutual security, Egypt and the U.S. are active participants in international peacekeeping operations. Egypt has contributed to peacekeeping operations throughout the world, including Sudan, Mozambique, Angola, Liberia, Rwanda and East Timor; in addition to deploying peacekeeping forces to Somalia and Bosnia to support UN troops and NATO forces.

I must also mention that with regard to Sudan, Egypt is the largest contributor to peacekeeping forces in the UN African Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) as it participates with over 2300 peace keepers in two mechanized infantry battalions, a transportation company, a military engineers company and one signal company.

Military partnership is only one main dimension of our cooperation that revolves around a mutual interest in guaranteeing development and prosperity for the Egyptian population, while ensuring the U.S. an effective partner striving to achieve our common objectives. We are certain that continuing to promote U.S.-Egyptian relations in all its avenues of cooperation will contribute positively to Egypt’s efforts towards political, economic and social development.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Allow me to turn now to provide you with more insight on developments in Egypt. I believe it’s important in a relationship of the magnitude that exists between us that both sides are well aware of achievements, challenges and aspirations that motivate their respective societies. Greater mutual awareness of our distinct circumstances will necessarily contribute to greater levels of understanding, and our ability to define more accurately areas of cooperation.

Egypt has been through tremendous political, economic and social turbulences and volatility during the second half of the last century. Despite having taken both courageous decisions of going to war and making peace to regain our sovereignty over every inch of our land, we have adopted a consistent course so as to provide the Egyptian people the prosperity and advancement they rightly deserve. Indeed, the government has, for more than twenty years now, been applying an ambitious reform program in all fields of life.

We are committed to political pluralism, democratization, freedom of expression, and promoting and protecting human rights. There are currently two dozen political parties in Egypt; and though most have not yet impacted the public, one must note that one-fourth of the Egyptian Parliament is comprised of independent and opposition representatives contributing to a healthy debate and oversight of government policies.

Egypt recognizes the value of the application of the principle of freedom of expression and its positive impact on societal development. It has, therefore, striven to reinforce its position as a major player in the region when it comes to the media with a Press that’s one of the most influential and widely-read.

Over half of Egypt’s 500 newspapers, journals and magazines are privately owned. It is also worthy to note that, unlike some other countries in the region, Egypt does not apply media censorship; hence promoting a wider space for freedom of expression. Egyptian satellite channels reaching out locally as well as to the region and beyond also attest to embracing the value of projecting divergent views in the process of developing national consensus. More than 162,000 of Egyptian citizens are bloggers, comprising 30% of the Arab world’s blogger community. And, the number of Egyptians with access to the internet has been growing at a remarkable pace.

There is also a rising recognition of the importance of promoting and protecting human rights from a governmental and non-governmental perspective. Legislation has been enacted in support of this objective. Enhancing national capacity building is key, raising greater public awareness and enforcing accountability. It is also noteworthy to mention the creation of the National Human Rights Council, headed by the former UN Secretary General Dr. Boutros Ghali, as one non-governmental watchdog, among many others, in the field of human rights that has had a definite impact on policy and public awareness.

Similarly, our commitment to empowering women in all walks of life is clear and have made leaps from the beginning of the 20th century. We are also committed to supporting civil society organizations as important tools for promoting the development of our people.

Having said that, it is important to understand that while political and social reform in Egypt is an ongoing process, it is our belief that dealing with such challenges must be derived from within, from the desire to reform and improve. Such actions are based on each country’s priorities and the value structure defined by each nation’s particular cultural and historical experiences.

Egypt has also developed ambitious economic agendas. U.S. assistance in this area is a source of appreciation having had a very direct impact in improving our economic potential. Continued interest in the promotion of foreign direct investment will provide for the crucially needed economic development, especially in light of the rising challenges to alleviate poverty, cope with a rapidly growing population and compete globally. The socio-economic well-being of our society can be greatly elevated through investing in education, technology and know-how transfer that would upgrade the platform of our human resources. This will ultimately prepare our nations’ youth for the future, helping them to integrate into, rather than be isolated from, a globalized world.

In all these areas, the U.S. has been a valuable partner supporting our capacity-building efforts.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Moving on to the regional situation, one must note that the dynamic relationship between Egypt and the United States is surely not divorced from the regional setting that constitutes an important component in the challenges we both face. So, a demonstration of how our bilateral partnership feeds into the accomplishment of shared regional objectives is warranted.

Egypt is steadfast in its commitment towards peace. It has continued to advocate the benefits that are derived from peace and also prove by example that cooperation and coexistence are the preferred course serving the peoples of the region. We have consistently upheld our peace accord with Israel, and we are re-doubling our efforts to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for all peoples of the Middle East.

The first issue that starkly confronts us in any analysis of the regional strife is undoubtedly its central core conflict: the Palestinian question. This unresolved issue has been festering for decades, deteriorating to greater and more dangerous magnitudes, adversely influencing other open conflicts in the region today. Whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, the situation in Lebanon or Iran, along with the challenges posed by extremism, the numerous crises in the Middle East are related to the Palestinian quest for justice and peace.

One may wonder how this one issue can be of such impact, yet the undeniable reality is that this conflict shapes the perception of Arabs and Muslims towards the West, and the U.S in particular. Without extracting a comprehensive just peace, this conflict will continue to serve the interests of those who seek to incite many around the region and the globe.

To that end, Egypt remains committed to pursuing a final lasting viable peace for both the Palestinians and the Israelis. The framework of such peace leading to a Palestinian state is not new, as the general structure of the solution is well known to the parties. Following many years of peace talks and negotiations, the main outline of a final settlement revolves around the following: that the border of the Palestinian state will be the June 1967 line, with minor land swaps agreed between both sides. Certain arrangements will have to be made on the Palestinian side to accommodate Israel’s security concerns and provide the security guarantees needed. Jerusalem will be the capital of both states; and finally there has to be a just settlement to the plight of the Palestinian refugees.

We are committed to the two-state solution as the political horizon of peace negotiations. The international community, including the U.S., fully supports this as the only credible means to bringing about peace and justice to the region. Nevertheless, the window of opportunity to fulfill this aspiration is continuing to close. The consequences will certainly adversely affect both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, in addition to the states of the region and beyond.

Continued Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories along with the separation wall, with its consumption of vast Palestinian land, erodes the very essence of the two-state solution.

What Egypt is advocating, through its talks with all the relevant parties, is the need to demonstrate a political will committed to achieving peace rather than aimless tactical maneuvering that prolongs the suffering of both people and forces Palestinians to continue to live under occupation.

We are well aware of the intricate and complicated nature of the political situation as relates to the pursuit of peace. This can only be overcome by the mutual recognition of both parties – Israelis and Palestinians – that the courageous compromises and flexibilities necessary to make peace contribute equally in providing a brighter future for generations to come.

And, though we believe that the political resolution of the conflict should be achieved today before tomorrow, we recognize that further efforts must continue by Egypt, the U.S. and the international community to assist the parties. Yet, at the same time, the tragic humanitarian conditions faced by the Palestinian population under occupation must be immediately addressed.

Conditions in the West bank are still bleak, despite recent relative improvement, which is limited in view of the low base of comparison. The human suffering in Gaza is enormous and unacceptable.

We remain cognizant of the far-reaching effects of this conflict, and continue to place it at the forefront of our dialogue with the US, which we look to its leadership and ability to assist the parties in undertaking the necessary courageous steps to achieve the needed peace.

As to the other regional hurdles, it is our belief that these are a reflection of a wider conflict among a number of regional and international actors and their conflicting interests. An open dialogue and cooperation in defining a course of action with this Administration continues on all these issues:

In Iraq, territorial integrity and stability is key. On our part, we are pursuing momentum in Egyptian-Iraqi bilateral relations. And, as the U.S. continues to complete its withdrawal plan, it is vital that every effort is exerted to avoid any deterioration of security in Iraq. The prime challenge is to deflect any political vacuum, rising sectarian strife and disintegration; all of which would have direct adverse consequences on the overall stability of the region and beyond.

Also, in Afghanistan, Egypt is closely engaged with the US and many other international partners to assist in alleviating the dire economic and social conditions there, and in confronting the roots of extremism.

Along with the challenge of the Iranian nuclear issue, the efforts by Tehran to expand its influence over the region is of great concern to us. Let me make this clear: while supporting the international community’s efforts to verify fully the nature of Iran’s nuclear ventures, the question of Israel’s nuclear capabilities and its continuing rejection to accede to the NPT comes to light and needs to be properly addressed, for one standard must apply to all. Israel must adhere fully to the NPT, Iran must cooperate fully with the IAEA; hence a nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East becomes a reality.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

To conclude, I would like to say that our aim, through cooperating with the United States, is to create a peaceful regional and international environment focusing on achieving stability and the prosperity of the people. We will continue to work to create a platform of mutual cooperation that involves Egypt and like-minded countries of the region, in order to confront all challenges.

The pivotal role that Egypt assumes as a regional leader grants the U.S. an effective partner able to deliver; one that would move forward with it. Through embarking on all avenues of cooperation, I am confident that the true potential of the Middle East will be realized, especially that we see many positive elements which can be harnessed towards creating what the region deserves.

Each — the U.S. and Egypt — is an asset to the other. We are proud of this relationship, and will exert our utmost not only to safeguard it, but to lift it to elevated levels for the sake of our nations and peoples.

Thank you…

March 4, 2010

Business Today

Loula Zaklama, a highly sought after advertising pioneer, Neveen El Tahri, chairperson and managing director of Delta Holding for Financial Investments, Sisters Hind and Nadia Wassef and Nihal Schawky, founding partners of successful bookstore chain Diwan, are five of the most prominent entrepreneurial women in Egypt. In an interview with Business Today, they reflect on their success and discuss why more women haven’t reached the upper echelons of the corporate world.

“It was very, very hard but it never occurred to me that I was going to be able to work or succeed,” says Zaklama. Five decades after she got started in advertising, Zaklama is still an outlier. Only 15% of private sector workers are female. Women make up just one in five small-or medium-sized business owners; in Western countries, the ratio is close to half. In Egypt, women need not look far to be reminded of their traditional roles. In the business community, the gender contrasts are emphasized even further.

El Safar explains that the stigma facing women manifests itself in unexpected ways. She cites difficulties getting loans for business start-ups as a prime example. Pressure on ambitious women is different than on their male counterparts, she says, and there are psychological barriers that need to be overcome along with more tangible obstacles. The gravity associated with requesting large loans often leads women to ask for less than their male colleagues might, she says.

But these entrepreneurial women do not seem phased by the things that set them apart from the men; in fact, they see them as an advantage. El Tahri believes that such differences are what make women more dedicated and eager to prove themselves. “I think it is part of our DNA and how we were brought up,” she says, explaining that from childhood girls are accustomed to gender disparities and that instills in them a drive to prove their capacity for success.

To read the entire article please click here.

March 4, 2010

Washington Post

For Muslims, peaceful coexistence is an obligation rather than a matter of choice. Prophet Muhammad was not only encouraged to engage the followers of Islam, Judaism and Christianity — the three monotheistic religions - in meaningful dialogue; he was commanded to do so.

This week in Washington, leaders of different Muslim and Christian faiths came together to discuss reconciliation between Islam and the Christian West at the Christian-Muslim Summit. I was honored to be a part of this dialogue and to join a myriad voices, from eminent religious leaders to the general public, to discuss ways to work together to promote peace efforts worldwide.

The 2007 open letter signed by 138 Muslim leaders, "A Common Word," has paved the way towards better understanding of religious diversity amongst Muslims. It opens with a line that best summarizes the Islamic position on interfaith dialogue: "Call unto the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and contend with them in the fairest way." (Ayah 125 of Surat Al-Nahl).

The Qur'anic command is also very clear on this topic: "Say: O People of the Book: Come to an agreement between us and you, that we worship none but God, and that we shall ascribe no partners to Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside God. And if they decline (your invitation for dialogue), then say: Bear witness that we shall (continue to) submit to God in Islam" (Al-Imran: 64). According to the Qur'an, interfaith dialogue should be proactively initiated by Muslims.

There are two important tenets to emphasize about the Islamic viewpoint on interfaith dialogue:

• The purpose of interfaith dialogue is not to necessarily conclude with a winner and a loser or to convert others, but rather to share one's principles. Sincere dialogue should strengthen a person's faith and at the same time break down barriers.

• Dialogue must not be confined to academic and intellectual circles. Its purpose is to demystify religious differences to everyday people and to uncover the words of truth that frequently get buried under human biases and tendencies to follow that which is convenient. Dialogue can only lead people to examine their religious identities more deeply.

With regard to interfaith dialogue and understanding taking place on an institutional level, al-Azhar University, the oldest, most respected and influential Sunni institution of higher education in the world, has long been active in reaching out to other religious communities, both within the Islamic world and on the international stage. This spirit of dialogue is evident in the fatwas, or rulings, of Al-Azhar Sheikhs, as well as in the activities of its scholars.

For example, in 1959, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mahmud Shaltut issued a fatwa proclaiming that the school of thought followed by Shiite Muslims is acceptable to Sunnis, bringing about a new era of dialogue and cooperation between the sects. Pope John Paul II visited Al-Azhar in 2000 after which a Muslim Catholic commission for dialogue that continues to meet regularly was founded.

More recently, in 2007, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, the head of Dar al-Ifta, one of the world's leading centers of Islamic authority, was a primary signatory of the "A Common Word" initiative which called for dialogue between Muslims and Christians based on the principles of love of God and love of neighbor. In a series of conferences based on this initiative, the Grand Mufti and other Muslim scholars from around the world have met with Christian leaders in the U.S, the UK, and with the Pope at the Vatican, where they discussed the importance of interfaith dialogue based on authentic scholarship and brotherly love.

Moreover, Al-Azhar University does not limit its involvement on the issue of interfaith dialogue to members of different faiths, but engages those within the Muslim community itself. Last year, Al-Azhar University devoted its annual international alumni conference to the theme of interfaith dialogue. The conference, which brought together former students from Egypt and around the Muslim World, explored the sources of inter-communal tension around the globe and stressed the importance of awareness of the common values shared by all the great faiths of the world.

It is not religion that is the root cause of world problems, as some people may want to assert, but rather the misunderstanding of religion that ends up plaguing the world. Interfaith dialogue can certainly serve to bring about a higher level of understanding of different religions on a global level, which will also hopefully lead to more tolerance, acceptance of others, and appreciation for all humanity.

Dr. Ahmad Mohamed El Tayeb is president of Cairo's Al-Azhar University and served as one of the principals in the Christian-Muslim Summit in Washington on March 1-3, 2010.

March 3, 2010

Voice of America

Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo have agreed to support a U.S. proposal for indirect peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters Wednesday that members of the Arab League will back the talks for a period of four months.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is attending the Cairo meeting, has said he would abide by the Arab League's decision.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also welcomed the decision.

The announcement follows a U.S. offer to mediate discussions between the two sides in an effort to revive the stalled peace process.

On Tuesday, a U.S. State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said Washington believes Israel and the Palestinians are "getting closer" to starting a dialogue.

Talks broke down over a year ago. One of the biggest disputes is Israel's continued settlement activity in territory that Palestinians claim for a future state.

March 1, 2010

Daily News Egypt

Speaking at her alma mater, the American University in Cairo (AUC), Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan called for reigniting the spark of civic engagement, calling it an “indispensible part” of social progress in the region.

“Social progress doesn’t come from governments looking down, directing change. It comes from communities, families and individuals looking up, driving society forward themselves, fuelled by nothing more than an idea or instinct to do good … It comes from civic engagement,” were the strong words her majesty began with as she addressed students, alumni and educators.

She noted that students need to recognize the importance of civic engagement, a principal that is rooted in our culture.

“We need to accept responsibility to our society and become part of the social web, as citizenship is the sense of duty and pride and doing social good,” she said, adding that that lately citizenship has been spelt with a ‘s’ for “sit back and sit still.”

“A man demonstrates his true worthiness when he participates in community,” Queen Rania pointed out.

She referred to two role models for civic engagement within the Arab World. The first is AUC alumnus, Raghda El Ebrahsi, who founded Alashanek Ya Baladi, which started off as a community service club at AUC in 2002 and after graduation she turned it into an active NGO that caters to the society as a whole, regardless of financial class.

“For me the story is symbolic to the spark needed to ignite civic engagement … there is more to life than just possessions …the true value [of life] lies in people,” said Queen Rania.

The second is Sweilem Rihani, who, at the age of 15, was diagnosed with cancer. But instead of giving in to the illness, he defeated it and volunteered his time and effort to help other cancer patients.

“Raghda and Sweilam saw no ceilings and they made a difference … we need more of them,” she said, adding that the region is drowning in problems so we need to “look up to the open sky for possibilities.”

Queen Rania told the hundreds of students in the audience that they are the force that will decide the future of the region.

“No one can change everything but each one can do something, you can be the spark that sets the chain of motion…and together be a generation that looks up, reaches out and lifts our region,” she said.

In addition, students will also learn from these experiences in a way that would help them in their careers, she explained. “You learn team work, leadership, communication, problem solving, adaptability and open mindedness.”

Questions from the student body were brought forward by Student Union President Omar Kandil, who first asked about the ways to motivate students to participate in civic engagement.

“Improve the quality of teachers as they shape the next generation,” replied Queen Rania. “They also need to take the students out of the classrooms and onto the streets, teaching them what’s relevant to what is going on outside,” she added.

Citizens, she explained, can’t wait for governments to make the change.

“There needs to be more activism and less passiveness in our society. We need to realize that civic engagement is a path to development and a symptom of it.”

She also spoke of Islam and how outside the region it has been associated with aggression, violence and oppression of women and within the region became associated with political play.

“We have become preoccupied with just the technical aspects of the religion [leaving] the spiritual side and the actual values of our religion,” she said, adding that “Civic engagement is a central part of our religion.”

She noted that, “Civic engagement alone cannot elevate the country’s standard but it is an indispensible part.”

March 1, 2010

Egyptian State Information Service

Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif said on 28/2/2010 during the annual meeting with the members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt that Egypt succeeded to overcome global economic crisis repercussions as attested by the global economic institutions.

The Prime Minister called on the members of the chamber to highlight the strength of the Egyptian economy and its success in withstanding the effects of the global financial crisis. He said the Egyptian economy had achieved a growth rate of 5 per cent, in spite of the crisis.

Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Magdy Radi said the assignment of the door- knocking mission comes within the framework of efforts by the American Chambers of Commerce to interact with the US market.

He said the meeting addressed a number of important issues, such as the state of the Egyptian economy and the global economic crisis impact.

Radi said the Prime Minister asked the members of the chamber to convey to the US side a number of messages: that the Egyptian economy had overcome the global financial crisis, and that investors were confident in the Egyptian economic performance. The Prime Minister told the members of the chamber that the Egyptian government was keen to bring about a qualitative development of relations between Egypt and the US administration.

February 28, 2010

Daily News Egypt

Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating of the Egyptian stock market to “overweight”, adding Egypt to the ranks of China, Russia, Brazil, India, Malaysia and Poland as markets in which investors should acquire stock.

Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Barra calculates global stock market ratings for every country in its All Country World Index (ACWI), and includes Egypt in MSCI’s Emerging Market (EM) Index. The MSCI EM Index is a free-float weighted equity index; its 0.9 percent rise on Friday compared to only 0.4 percent increase seen by the MSCI World Index of securities from 23 developed countries.

Egypt’s upgrade follows a streak of optimism for emerging markets, although Michael Ganske, head of emerging-market research at Commerzbank AG in London, advised caution.

“Emerging markets are a strong, structural story… [But] today’s movement is a reaction to the market being quite depressed over the past couple of days. We are facing a period of higher volatility rather than a long-term, sustained rally,” Bloomberg quoted Ganske.

“There could be further to go in terms of a reversal in sentiment toward emerging markets,” said analysts Shanthi Nair and Rishav Dev at Nomura International Plc. “Valuations for emerging markets have still not moved into attractive territory,” stated the London-based analysts, according to Bloomberg, which added that “valuations in emerging markets remain expensive.”

Alarm that global recovery in 2010 remains slow has contributed to volatile markets worldwide. However, expectations for Egypt in 2010 remain robust.

Reham El Desoki, chief economist at investment bank Beltone Financial, commented on MSCI’s bullishness on Egypt. She told Daily News Egypt, “Most international organizations have been reporting positively on Egypt’s economy and its financial market, with the better than expected growth and the better financial performance compared to other emerging markets. We believe this could serve to attract more investors to Egypt in the short term, especially as organizations like the IMF and ratings agencies release positive views on Egypt.”

MSCI’s upgraded rating of Egyptian stock follows similar confidence expressed by Credit Suisse, which had upgraded its Egypt rating to “overweight” in September. In a report released at the time, Credit Suisse credited Egypt’s “attractive static and historic valuation levels relative to other emerging markets; third highest GDP growth rate for 2009 among emerging markets; expectations for the continuation of an expansionary money cycle.”

Credit Suisse’s preferred stock picks were Orascom Telecom, Orascom Construction, Telecom Egypt and EFG Hermes. In February Credit Suisse’s EMEA strategist Alex Redman maintained his ‘overweight’ stance.

Credit Suisse also cited Moody’s positive assessment of Egypt’s investment outlook. Although rising inflation in 2008 had caused the investor’s service to lower Egypt to a “negative” rating, as early as August 2009, Moody’s had upgraded Egypt to “stable.”

Although rampant inflation has been assuaged, according to Tristan Cooper, Moody’s Head Analyst for Middle East Sovereigns, inflationary pressure remains a concern. "This, combined with slower growth and rising unemployment, continues to present challenges in light of the country's poor social indicators," he explained following the release of Moody’s improved rating.

Moody’s listed the government’s ability to contain its deficit despite stimulus measures as a motivating factor for confidence in Egypt. Furthermore, Egypt was able to come through the global economic crisis due to a “moderate level of economic openness, a solid external position a well-diversified economy, and stable banking system with limited foreign exposure.”

However, on-going deficits and public debt burdens, credit concerns, and weak public finances are among the anxieties that prevent Moody’s from appearing as bullish on Egypt as some other rating agencies.

A note released Feb. 25 by investment bank EFG Hermes reported, “Having been the best stock market performer globally (up 12 percent) in the first seven weeks of 2010 … the market has fallen over the past week.” This recent downslide was attributable to local factors, “rising valuations, lower local cash positions, and worsening retail investor sentiment.”

The note explained that foreign investors bought heavily in early 2010, and therefore EFG Hermes anticipated short-term weakness while profits are taken.

Regarding the lack of retail investors, EFG Hermes gave two reasons: “ongoing and pending rights issues have reduced retail investors’ available cash positions … and retail investor sentiment has soured due to regulatory investigations into a number of local brokerages and small-cap stocks.”

EFG Hermes corroborated optimism in Telecom Egypt and Orascom Telecom, though admitted to possible high volatility especially for Orascom Telecom, which is still embroiled in an ownership dispute with France Telecom over mobile subscriber Mobinil. EFG Hermes recommends companies engaged in the government’s plans for infrastructure development. El Sewedy Cables and Orascom Construction are recommended, despite their relatively low upside potential, or likely stock price increase.

Analysis of Egypt’s 2010 forecast continues to call for GDP growth of 5 percent, with the caveat that internal consumption and government strategies will become unsustainable, should international investment fail to pick up.

February 23, 2010

Ahmed el-Beheri

President Hosni Mubarak criticized conferences on inter-religious dialogue in other countries, saying that because such conferences take place "behind closed doors, they don't reach the hearts and minds of the public."

The president's comments were part of a speech given on his behalf by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif at the inaugural session of the 22nd International Islamic Conference of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, entitled "The Objectives of the Islamic Sharia and Contemporary Issues."

In his speech, Nazif mentioned several thoughts by President Mubarak on the subject of religious extremism and tolerance:

People from other religions misunderstand Islam, so Islamic scholars must double their efforts to promote the real image of Islam and Muslims;

The president renews calls for "an enlightened religious discourse based on tolerance and acceptance of others;”
Muslims are in need of an educational system and media outlets that embody these values;

Waves of fanaticism and extremism among youth hinder development efforts in the Islamic world and prevent Muslims from taking serious steps toward development and progress.

Egyptian Minister of Endowments Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzoq attended the conference and said that all prejudice concerning Islam should be addressed. He criticized movements in the Islamic world that seek to instill false religious concepts among youth and push some of them to carry out foolish acts.

Pope Shenouda III, also present at the conference, focused his speech on the freedom of religion called for by Islam, citing a verse from the Quran that states that there should be no compulsion in religion. He also described religion as a private relationship between an individual and God.

To read the original article, please click here.

February 22, 2010

February 22, 2010

February 22, 2010

Egypt Today

Though problems persist, NGOs are starting to make headway
By Jessica Gray and John Prosser

Before the Alwan wa Awtar (Colors and Strings) center opened in 2006, nine-year-old Hoda Moustafa had never held a crayon. Like most of her peers living in the shanty towns around the Moqattam Hills, Moustafa grew up in by abject poverty. Her parents, unable to afford basic school supplies, did the best they could to provide for her but were more concerned with where their next meal would come from than teaching their children to sing or draw. All that changed the day she was taken under the wing of Alwan wa Awtar founder Azza Kamel.

“Moustafa was a very shy and insecure child. Most of the children that come in are the same. They’re not used to speaking or thinking for themselves,” says Kamel. She remembers Moustafa’s fear of her first drawing lesson. “She kept saying, ‘I don’t know how to draw. I’m hopeless!’” Undaunted, staff continued to encourage Moustafa, refusing to allow the girl’s self-doubt to prevent her from reaching her potential.

Four years later, Moustafa, now 14, has become a role model in her community. She joined a choir, has been featured in television interviews about the center and even placed second in a national peace poster contest.

For Kamel, there is no greater reward than seeing these children conquer their fears and express themselves through art and performance. The center, which began with just 30 students, now caters to over 4,000 and employs over 40 staff members, volunteers and teachers dedicated to giving children a safe haven to escape the streets.

Alwan wa Awtar is just one of thousands of grassroots non-governmental organizations (NGOs) nationwide that have flourished in recent years. Born out of a public desire to improve peoples’ lives — from basic education, health and social services to poverty alleviation efforts, infrastructure development and environmental awareness — community development leaders say reduced bureaucracy and a steady supply of willing volunteers have given them a fertile environment in which to grow and prosper.

But it doesn’t stop there. The trend toward greater civil engagement has extended to big business through corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and domestic involvement from international NGOs, establishing a new environment for public-private partnerships and innovation. While there are still concerns about Egypt’s seemingly insurmountable poverty rates and government reluctance to embrace change, social entrepreneurs aren’t prepared to let the challenges ahead keep them from making a difference.

Cutting Through Red Tape

Ministry of Social Solidarity figures show that the number of NGOs has risen substantially in recent years, from 15,000 in 1999 to over 27,000 as of 2008. Current estimates put that number at around 28,000. The ministry attributes the jump to Law 84/2002, which standardized registration procedures and revamped the rules and regulations governing NGOs. The law also exempted NGOs from certain fees and taxes, freeing up cash that could be better used to serve people in need. The government has also allotted LE 100 million in additional funds that NGOs can apply for through the NGOs Assistance Fund.

Wael El-Zoghby, executive director of the Baladna (Our Country) Foundation for Civil Society Development, says the 2002 law was instrumental to the growth of development organizations like his own. Baladna has trained more than 100 social entrepreneurs since it began operations in 2008. Currently finishing coursework in NGO management at Cairo University, El-Zoghby says his organization would never have gotten off the ground under the old law issued under former President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

“Law 84/2002 was implemented around 40 years after its predecessor. [] The [previous] law did not promote civil society or NGO work,” says El-Zoghby. “It let the government control everything and appoint each NGO’s board of trustees.”

Motaz Mahmoud Elewa is the community programs coordinator of Ofok Systems, an NGO providing information technology-based training to help individuals find employment and develop professionally. He agrees that government reins on NGOs have been loosened.

“In the last 10 years no NGO in Egypt could do anything without the government knowing exactly what it was,” says Elewa. “There’s no pressure anymore. ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that?’ There’s more flexibility. Not because they don’t care but because they [recognize] NGOs are doing something positive.”

The ministry intends to further streamline the process and has created a committee supervised by the General Federation of NGOs and Civil Organizations, but the committee has yet to make any recommendations.

Dr. Adli Bishay, executive director and co-founder of the Friends of Environment and Development Association, says there is still too much red tape for NGOs that receive funding from international donors like the Egyptian Swiss Development Fund. In 2009, only 312 NGOs were allowed to accept international donations. His organization depends on funds from several global groups and would be unable to continue to support infrastructure development projects in Gamalia without access to that money.

“Once you get support, most of which comes from different international organizations, then you find another problem. The Ministry of Social Solidarity [examines] every small amount of support you get, in the name of security,” he says. “Every program that is foreign supported has to go through a number of security agencies before you get to use any of the money.”

He adds that the lengthy wait for funding approval can strain relationships with donors. Despite that, he admits that running an NGO is much easier than when he started in 1992.

Bishay says the constant requirement of documents and approvals at every stage before, during and after construction, was one of the main reasons that three buildings his organization built or renovated in Gamalia were finished years behind schedule. The most recent project, the establishment of an electrical and maintenance training center, officially opened at the beginning of 2008, long after Friends of Environment and Development Association had hoped it would.

Overlapping Enthusiasm

Despite some of the issues still facing NGOs, there is no shortage of willing volunteers looking to get involved — be they fresh university graduates or captains of industry. Many pioneers behind grassroots movements are young graduates, according to Ofok’s Elewa, but NGOs increasingly resemble big businesses in the way they are run.

“In the very beginning, civil society began by charity. People took care of each other [ by] making donations to each other,” says Elewa. “But this developed [and people began] to take this kind of charity to a bigger scale.”

A typical example is the Egyptian Food Bank (EFB), founded by a group of successful businessmen — with backgrounds as diverse as real estate and textiles — with the goal of utilizing their combined experience and connections to give something back to the community.

“God gave us a lot,” says Moez El Shohdi, CEO of the EFB, “and we thought we have to return some of that to the community — poor people especially.” He points out that this mentality is not necessarily limited to the wealthy, but manifests in anyone who wants to see an improvement in their surroundings. “It’s very easy [to find volunteers,]” says Shohdi, “but it’s a recent trend.”

Such eagerness to get involved with NGOs, however, needs to be better focused to avoid redundancy of organizations, says Iman Bibars, Ashoka Arab World’s MENA regional director. Instead of simply starting a new charity or development organization, people interested in civic duty should first see if there are any established groups that have similar programs in place.

“Some people have so much distrust of NGOs that they start their own, reinventing the wheel. This means they are competing with traditional NGOs. Very few business people from the private sector get involved in established NGOs,” she says.

Ashoka encourages this attitude by allowing established social entrepreneurs to access endowments worth LE 250,000 over the course of two years. The money is provided by private businesses and donors. Ashoka has so far awarded more than 50 such grants to Arab social entrepreneurs, many of them hailing from Egypt.

The future for NGOs in Egypt depends on a large number of factors, according to Ashoka’s Bibars, such as the political and economic stability of the region and how quickly donor money returns in the wake of the global economic slowdown.

There is also the question of how effective the majority of the country’s 27,000-plus NGOs are. That said, nobody can deny there are thousands of NGOs genuinely changing the lives of Egypt’s poorest citizens.

An attentive student and community activist in her own right, young Hoda Moustafa now wants to be a medical doctor; a dream she never would have pursued without the guidance of Kamel and her team at Alwan wa Awtar. Though Kamel has her doubts as to whether the government has made enough of an effort to promote social entrepreneurship here, she believes community leaders can still have a long-lasting effect on younger generations.

“Once youth actually get working with their communities they become really passionate about it,” she says. “We work with a lot of youth. I see a trend in that youth are leaving the private sector and high paid positions to work in development.” et

Egyptian Food Bank

F ormed four years ago by a group of successful businessman, the Egyptian Food Bank (EFB) has set itself the lofty aim of eradicating hunger in Egypt. Funded by commercial sponsors and private donations, the organization distributes food to underprivileged citizens — orphans, widows, the elderly and those unable to work — through 891 partner NGOs spread throughout the country.

A distinguishing feature of the EFB is its business-minded approach to non-profit work. Although it accepts all kinds of donations, the organization insists on funding any promotional campaigns itself and produces branded food products and distribution containers at its own factories operated at a profit — all benefits get put to good use elsewhere.

The breadth of experience garnered by EFB board members gives them diverse contacts through which innovative collaborations with the private sector can be established. Just one example: The EFB provides more than 17 million meals per month by redistributing leftover food from hotels and resorts — a scheme championed by the EFB CEO Moez El Shohdi, a former hotelier.

Friends of Environment and Development Association

Friends of Environment and Development Association was established in 1992 to bring attention to the importance of environmental issues and extreme poverty in Egypt. The association began its work by spending two years researching these issues, only to find that few cared when the paper was published and distributed. Undaunted, the association’s members decided to take matters into their own hands and rebuild and/or renovate three buildings in the Gamalia district of Cairo, one of the city’s poorest areas, best-known as the neighborhood of Naguib Mahfouz’s youth. The final building of the project, which houses a training center for electricians and appliance mechanics, was completed in 2008. The association operates thanks to international donors.

Alwan wa Awtar

A lwan wa Awtar began connecting impoverished children in Moqattam with art in February 2006. Starting with just 30 students, the center now serves over 4,000. The aim is to develop soft skills through performance art, music and drawing. The center also promotes education and has a community library. The goal for Alwan wa Awtar is getting youth off the streets and into an environment where they are free to express themselves and grow without fear of being discriminated against because of their poverty. Azza Kamel, the center’s founder, hopes to expand on the center’s course offerings with the help of over 40 staff members, volunteers and teachers with whom she collaborates.

Ashoka

A shoka is a global organization dedicated to supporting social entrepreneurship through endowments. The group’s regional office opened in Cairo in 2004. Since then, Ashoka Arab World has welcomed over 50 Ashoka Fellows, many of whom are from Egypt. Some of last year’s fellows include Azza Kamel from Alwan wa Awtar and Mohamed Sawy of the Sawy Culture Wheel. Ashoka also hosts social entrepreneurship conferences and has initiated several programs of its own to support the community at large, such as the Housing for All program, dedicated to providing affordable housing for low-income families, and the Ashoka Youth Venture to encourage young people to get involved in social entrepreneurship.
Ofok

O fok is a community-focused NGO helping individuals develop skills for the workplace through training in a range of information technology skills. Classes held at their offices in Mohandiseen also offer students business advice so they can optimize their career efforts, either by setting up their own enterprises or through partnership schemes with global IT firms such as Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft.

February 18, 2010

America.Gov

Egypt and the League of Arab States are fighting piracy as part of an international effort that includes nearly 50 nations and seven international organizations. The Contact Group, which utilizes the maritime and justice systems, was established to address piracy in the waters of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, and their initiatives appear to be working. Since 2007, though the number of pirate attacks has increased, their rate of successfulness has decreased. 63 percent of attacks were successful in 2007. In 2008, only 34 percent of attacks were successful and last year that rate dropped to an average of 25 percent. According to officials, the rate of successful attacks has fallen to nearly zero since the summer of 2009.

To read the original article, please click here.

February 17, 2010

Q & A: Egypt's Zahi Hawass on King Tut findings
USA TODAY
Feb 16, 2010

Investigators released a genetic and medical profile of King Tut's family Tuesday, led by Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. We asked Hawass to comment on the Journal of the American Medical Association study findings by email:

1. What do you see as the role of Molecular Egyptology in answering outstanding questions in the field?

A: Molecular Egyptology shows great promise for helping us solve many Egyptological mysteries. We can find out many things about family relationships, and also about some diseases. If this work is done scientifically, it an help Egyptology and can open a new and larger role for forensic science in the reconstruction of history.

2. How do you see these results affecting the view of the 18th dynasty family?

A: The history of the 18th Dynasty has many questions. The Amarna period, to which Tutankhamun belonged, has been especially vague. In the Family of Tutankhamun project, we will continue to work to try to identify both the mother and wife of Tutankhamun, and also study other family relationships.

3. How promising are the prospects for a similar examination of other royal (or other) mummies?

A: Yes, we will also study other family relationships. Next we will study the family of Ramesses II, where there are still a number of questions to be answered.

We hope to be able to put names to some of the other unidentified mummies, as we have done for Akhenaten and Tiye, from caches of royal mummies that were hidden after the end of the New Kingdom (the period when Tutankhamun and Ramesses II lived). You have to know that these mummies were hidden away at night by later priests, and they made some mistakes because they were human beings like us. So it is fascinating for us to try to use science to trace the truth.

4. What other points do you see as important about the study?

A: I am also very proud that we were able to do this work in Egypt, with an Egyptian team. The participation of our international consultants was certainly essential to the process, but our team was Egyptian, and this is very important for the future.

By Dan Vergano

February 12, 2010

The building that houses the office in charge of the nation’s museums at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) downtown is grand but half-finished. With some work, it could be truly magnificent. Whether that work gets done anytime soon is anyone’s guess. The same could be said about the SCA’s colossal undertaking to give the country’s staggering collection of artifacts a new showcase.

Flush with ticket revenue from international exhibitions and local tourist sites, the SCA is in the midst of a project that will see 20 new museums covering every governorate, and long-closed favorites re-opening to the public over the next five years. More than just cash cows feeding on tourist dollars, however, the new museums are also hope to reconnect Egyptians with their own heritage, in their own neighborhoods.

“Ten years ago, we didn’t have any [major] museum, only the Egyptian Museum,” says Mohamed Abdel Fattah, head of the SCA’s Museum Sector.

Indeed, the nation’s most famous museum is also its most infamous, with many visitors complaining about poor lighting and labels, crowded displays and no air conditioning.
Renovation projects have added new display spaces for the royal mummies, temporary exhibitions and a revamped outdoor museum in the back garden. In January, a permanent children’s museum opened on the premises. The fact remains, however, that the nation’s collection of Pharaonic artifacts alone had outgrown the Egyptian Museum almost as soon as it opened in Tahrir Square in 1902.

The Downtown location was also considered a problem. “The people [in other governorates] are not able [] to come to Cairo to see the museum,” says Abdel Fattah. “We have to reach out to these people. We have to tell them about their civilization, about the history of their governorate.”

Until 2002, the museums were focused almost solely on the major tourist centers. Opened in 1892, Alexandria’s Greco-Roman Museum had a similar storehouse feel until it closed for renovation in 2005. The Luxor Museum opened in 1975, with a renovation and new annex completed in 2005. The Nubia Museum in Aswan opened in 1997, after 30 years in the planning.

When Dr. Zahi Hawass was appointed head of the SCA in 2002, he aggressively pushed for the new museums, according to Abdel Fattah. The SCA drafted a plan to build a museum in every governorate, as well as jumpstart stalled renovations on several others, including the Sohag Museum, delayed since 1998 and now set to open within a year.

Since then, the SCA has seen the Alexandria National Museum open in 2003, the Coptic Museum in Cairo reopen in 2006 after a complete makeover; a new site museum about the Pharaonic architect Imhotep open at Saqqara and, in November 2009, the re-opening of Howard Carter’s dig house on Luxor’s West Bank as a museum about the man who discovered King Tut.

Part of the SCA’s plan is to air out the Egyptian Museum, transferring more than 20 percent of the objects, including the famed royal mummies, to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in El Fustat, due to open in two years. King Tutankhamun’s treasures will be moved to the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) being built at the Giza Plateau, which the Museum Sector head confirms is on schedule to open in five years. Abdel Fattah emphasizes that after an extensive renovation, the Egyptian Museum will still showcase some of the best antiquities.

In the short term, the Suez Museum, focused on the Suez Canal, is the first to be unveiled, expected to open in April this year. The renovation of Alexandria’s Royal Jewelry Museum is also near completion; according to Abdel Fattah, the SCA is “reviewing the labels” on exhibits while preparing for the opening ceremony.

Several other regional museums have already been built and are awaiting the next step. The Aten Museum in Minya — a 25-feddan complex dedicated to Akhenaten, the first monotheist pharaoh — is awaiting only on interior design work. The Sohag Museum, looking at the pre-dynastic period circa 4000 BC, is at a similar stage, as is the regional museum in Sharm El-Sheikh, which, according to Abdel Fattah, will open in a year and a half. The Crocodile Museum, next to the Temple of Kom Ombo, is complete and will open soon.

The SCA sees museums as a self-generating investment. Revenues from existing museums and international exhibitions have padded the SCA’s coffers, according to Abdel Fattah. In 2008, Dr. Hawass told Al Ahram Weekly that the SCA earned nearly $350 million (LE 1.9 billion) from 23 international exhibitions, such as the still-touring Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of the Pharaohs, over the last five years. The money is being funneled back into SCA projects with potential for big returns.

“I think within five years, the whole map [of Egyptian museums] will change,” says Abdel Fattah.

To that end, these new museums represent more than an attractive way to house artifacts: They symbolize a new way of thinking about how the country’s antiquities are preserved and presented to the public, especially to the nation’s youth. In addition to on-site conservation labs to preserve the artifacts, features like the Egyptian Museum’s new children’s exhibit will be a staple at all the new museums.

February 5, 2010

Delivered on January 21, 2010

Egypt’s national security, understood comprehensively, is my primary responsibility, and I will accept neither complacency nor half-measures in regards to it.

We live in an unstable world, and a difficult region. It would be a mistake to ignore the growing ring of instability extending from Afghanistan and Pakistan, through Iran, Iraq and Yemen, and to Somalia and Sudan.

It would be a mistake to ignore the growing tides of sectarianism in the Arab & African regions and the world as a whole, nor attempts to ignite discord between the people of one nation such as demands for quotas, incidents of violence and bloodshed, and attempts to use foreign powers for domestic leverage; and external interferences that fuels fires, and which act according to their own interests and agendas.

The criminal attack in Nagaa Hamaady has shaken the nation’s conscience, shocked our sensibilities, and pained the hearts of Muslim and Coptic Egyptians.

Notwithstanding the execution of my orders to quickly capture the perpetrators, and refer them to the Emergency State Security Court, this horrific incident against the Copts on the Christmas Eve demands that all of us, Muslims and Copts, take a serious and forthright stand with ourselves.

I have received numerous reports from state agencies, and fact finding missions, which lay out the details of this sinful attack, including its background, details, and possible motives.

I, as President of the Republic, and of all Egyptians, warn against the dangers of undermining the unity of our people, and of conflict between its Muslims and Copts, and I state, in the clearest possible terms, that I will not be lenient with those, from either side, who attempt to undermine it or show contempt for it.

I was commander of the Air College in 1968, when Israeli warplanes bombed Nagaa Hammadi, and destroyed the Qena bridge. On that day, there was no difference between the blood of a Muslim and a Christian among the victims of that aggression. When we fought the October War, the people of Egypt, from all sides, sacrificed their blood and lives, and lifted the Egyptian flag over Sinai.

We are witnessing incidents and phenomena that are alien to our society, driving it to ignorance and fanaticism, and fed by the absence of an enlightened religious discourse from the men of Al-Azhar and the Church.

A religious discourse that must be supported by our educational system, our media, and our writers and thinkers; One that confirms the values of citizenship, that religion belongs to God, and the nation belongs to all; One that promotes the understanding that religion is a matter between a human and his Lord, and that Muslim and Christian Egyptians are partners in one nation, and that they are faced with the same difficulties, and that they share the same aspirations for a better future for themselves, their children, and grandchildren.

This is a necessary and vital role that must be played by the wise and the reasoned of our nation from all sides; One that confronts sectarian incitement, contains extremism, and which strives to build an advanced Egyptian society and modern and civil state; One which calls upon Muslims and Copts to strive to build schools and hospitals, assist the poor, and serve the nation.

The normal frictions of the daily lives of citizens, if they should develop a sectarian dimension, become a time bomb that ignites discord, undermines both pillars of the nation, and harms the image of our society, opening the door to foreign attempts, which we refuse, to interfere in purely Egyptian affairs that concern the children of a single family, and single Egyptian society.

To both wings of our society, I say, in the clearest possible terms, that we shall confront any sectarian crimes, acts or behaviors with the force and resolve of the law, with swift and effective justice, and stern sentences that will impose the severest penalties against their perpetrators and inciters, and which will deter those who make light of the security of our nation and the unity of its people.

February 4, 2010

Egypt's antiquities chief on Thursday unveiled the completion of an 8-year, $14.5 million restoration of the world's oldest Christian monastery, touting it as a sign of Christian-Muslim coexistence.

The announcement at the 1,600-year-old St. Anthony's Monastery came a month after Egypt's worst incident of sectarian violence in over a decade, when a shooting on a church on Orthodox Christmas Eve killed seven people.
The attack raised heavy criticism of the Egyptian government abroad and at home, by critics who say it has not done enough to address tensions between the country's Muslim majority and its Christian population, estimated at 10 percent of the 79 million population.

The government insists the shooting was a purely criminal act with no sectarian motives, and officials persistently deny the existence of significant Muslim-Christian frictions.

Top archaeologist Zahi Hawass took the opportunity to reiterate that stance as he showed journalists the work at St. Anthony's, an ancient compound at the foot of the desert mountains near Egypt's Red Sea coast.

"The announcement we are making today shows to the world how we are keen to restore the monuments of our past, whether Coptic, Jewish or Muslim," he said, referring to the dominant Orthodox Coptic Christian sect in Egypt.

"The incident in Upper Egypt can happen between two brothers," said Hawass when asked if there was any correction between the Dec. 6 shooting and the timing of his announcement at the monastery. "I want everyone to forgot this incident."

Hawass noted that the restoration work at the monastery was carried out by Muslims.

St. Anthony, widely revered as the founder of Christian monasticism, settled in this remote mountainous area at the end of the 3rd century to live in isolation. Upon his death, his followers built the monastery, which was completed around A.D. 350 remains in use to this day.

In the government-sponsored project, workers renovated the fortress-like ancient wall surrounding the monastery and the walls of its two main churches - the 14th century Church of the Apostles and the 6th century Church of St. Anthony. They also renovated monks' quarters and a 6th century tower into which monks would retreat during attacks by marauding Bedouin tribes throughout the Middle Ages.

A modern sewage system was also installed for the monastery, which is home to several dozen monks and is frequently visited by Christian pilgrims.

Amid the renovations, archaeologists from the American Research Center in Egypt discovered the remains of the original monks' cells dating back to the 4th century under the Church of the Apostles. After they were excavated, archeologists in 2008 covered them with thick glass so that visitors to the church can see them below their feet. ARCE also renovated stucco paintings in Church of St. Anthony.

February 4, 2010

The Egyptian national soccer team recently returned from Angola, where it participated in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations. Egypt was one of sixteen countries to qualify for the tournament. The team, whose nickname is “The Pharaohs,” won its first three matches in the initial group stage to advance to the knockout round.

After securing a 3-1 victory against Cameroon in the quarterfinals, the Pharaohs were set for a semifinal matchup against rival Algeria, which had recently defeated Egypt in a hard-fought World Cup qualifying match. This time, it was the Egyptians who had the upper hand, defeating their rival 4-0 and gaining redemption for their previous loss.

The final game against Ghana saw the Pharaohs score the lone goal of the match to secure a 1-0 victory and the Africa Cup of Nations title.

This was the third championship in a row for Egypt and the seventh overall, more than any other country. Impressively, the Egyptians won their title while going undefeated and only surrendering two goals in the entire tournament. Their effort was enough to vault the Pharaohs into the #10 spot in the FIFA world rankings, the highest ranking in the nation’s history.

The team was welcomed back to their homeland amid widespread celebrations and a special ceremony with President Hosni Mubarak.
 

December 14, 2009

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has begun making its national archives digitally available on the Internet in Arabic, having last month registered the world's first domain name in Arabic script.

The initiative to boost use of Arabic on the Web was launched on Monday following the domain name registration, which opened the Internet to millions of Arabic speakers put off by a language barrier.

Analysts say Arabic is just 1 per cent of Web content.

Egypt, the first of nine Arab countries to have registered so far, has adopted the domain name .misr -- the Arabic word for Egypt and which will be spelt in Arabic script.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamel said both initiatives are part of the country's push to boost Arabic e-content and broaden access to Arabic speakers.

"In the future this (digital processing of Egypt's National Archives) will be very useful when we have the Arabic domain really operational," Communications and Information Technology Minister Tarek Kamel told Reuters.

"We are now preparing the content in Arabic that really reflects the long history of Egypt in digital form," he added.

Internet regulator ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, says the new Arabic domains are expected to start working during 2010.

Technology services firm IBM and Egypt's government led the project for digitally documenting the National Archives to set up a database for the country's cultural heritage.

"Arabic content on the Web will be increased by 25 million records in the National Archive's database," IBM Project Manager Ahmed Amr Ali told Reuters, adding that the National Archives' website had a sample of 1 million documents on the Web so far.

ICANN, which oversees Web addresses and records the names of their sponsors, voted to allow non-Latin script to be used in Web addresses in mid-November.

"Domain names will give millions of users access to Web addresses in their own language," said ICANN's Baher Essam.

"If you go out in rural areas and places outside big cities the majority are much more comfortable using all electronic services in Arabic," he said, adding mobile use would not have risen so fast in Egypt, where about 50 million of its 77 million people are users, without Arabic-language ability on phones.

Analysts said launching Arabic domain names was only a first step and Arab states should do more to help build up content.

"There are about 300 million Arabs and Arab content on the Web is only 1 percent of the global content ... this is abysmal," American University in Cairo assistant professor Rasha Abdulla said.

December 7, 2009

Washington, D.C. – Business leaders from the Middle East and North Africa region called for concrete action to broaden the engagement and partnership between the United States and the Arab world at the inaugural Arab Global Forum, held Dec. 7 - 8. American President Barack Obama had promised to work towards bridging the gaps between the two sides in a landmark address in Cairo in June this year. Yet “in the past six months since the speech, very little has been accomplished on the ground,” said Shafik Gabr, Chairman and Managing Director, ARTOC Group for Investment and Development, Egypt. “We are here to participate in this new beginning.” Mr. Gabr is founder of Egypt’s International Economic Forum and Co-founder of the Arab Global Forum.

Gabr called on the U.S. to play a proactive role in forging a comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. “More than ever there is a need for conflict resolution,” he told more than 200 participants in the two-day meeting. According to Gabr, the business, government and civil society leaders from more than 16 countries at the Forum aim to come up with “actionable initiatives” to bring to both the U.S. and Arab leadership that would “set an agenda for a better future.”

Claude Smadja, President, Smadja & Associates, Switzerland, co-founder of the Arab Global Forum in partnership with Egypt’s International Economic Forum, added: “We want to bring solutions, to push the envelope and to get into the reality where only win-win solutions can survive and prosper…We need to make sure that the tremendous stimulus created by President Obama’s speech is not lost in the sands. We cannot afford another stage of disappointment at seeing tired rhetoric not followed by actions. This is a luxury we cannot afford.”

Later in a discussion on the economic outlook for the Arab world, panelists noted that the Middle East and North Africa had weathered the global crisis relatively better than other regions. “Oil exporters decided to continue public spending even though revenues were falling,” Masood Ahmed, Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department,
International Monetary Fund, remarked. “Because they continued to spend, this limited the effect of lower oil prices.”

According to Juan Jose Daboub, Managing Director of the World Bank, however, unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa had risen significantly as a result of the crisis. To generate new jobs during this period of economic stress will require investments to improve productivity and create new sources of growth, he explained. “We can no longer rely on the US consumer to sustain global demand. Why can’t the Middle East become one of the new poles of growth? I think it can.”

For the Arab world to drive new growth and create the millions of jobs it needs, panelists agreed, countries in the region will have to address structural problems and deficiencies such as the lack of consistent long-term planning, the wavering commitment to reform, the tendency to apply protectionist measures, and the lack of transparency.

“These are issues that we have to look at from a practical perspective rather than with a rosy view,” warned Mazen Darwazah, Chairman and CEO, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Jordan. “The predictability in long-term planning is very crucial. Education is very crucial. Finding jobs for our educated people is very crucial.” He argued that economies in the Middle East could focus on generating new growth from sectors that would benefit from the region’s youthful demographics, including tourism, education and the development of renewable sources of energy.

Darwazah and other panelists also called for the Arab world to deepen regional integration to boost competitiveness. “It is very difficult to be competitive, to get economies of scale, when you have fragmented markets,” said Clyde Prestowitz, President, Economic Strategy Institute, United States. He noted that countries that have achieved a high level of global competitiveness such as Singapore and Finland did so because they “really focused on being competitive.” Concluded Prestowitz: “The commitment is maybe the most important thing.”

At the end of the session, participants voted on two questions – the first, on the severity of the impact of the Dubai debt crisis, and the second, on when the U.S. would achieve real recovery. More than 80% of the participants believed that the impact of the Dubai crisis would last for the medium (from six months to a year) and long term (more than a year), while nearly 70% said that real recovery would not happen in the U.S. until 2011.

The Arab Global Forum (www.arabglobalforum.com) is an initiative of Egypt’s International Economic Forum (www.eieforum.org) and Smadja & Associates (www.smadja.ch). This inaugural meeting of some 200 decision-makers in Washington, D.C. is part of an ongoing process that will continue with meetings in Europe, Asia and the Middle East over the next year.

For more information, contact Barbara Erskine at Barbara@barbaraerskine.com or 202 725 2013 (US number) and (4179) 202 4528 (Swiss number).

Please click here to visit the Arab Global Forum website.

December 2, 2009

Rayburn House Office Building
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Come learn about Egypt during an information display at the Rayburn House Office. There will be posters with facts about Egypt, as part of the Egyptian Press & Information Office's 100 Facts campaign. You can also peruse the Press Office's new Web site, www.modernegypt.info, or sign-up to receive updates and e-alerts about Egypt.

The Rayburn House Office Building is located southwest of the Capitol, between Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street and First Street and C Street, S.W. The display will be in the foyer of the first floor.

November 9, 2009

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's new ambassador to Iraq has arrived in Baghdad, a diplomatic source said on Saturday of Cairo's first diplomatic representative in the country since its charge d'affaires was killed in 2005.

Sharif Kamal Shahin, a diplomat with 27 years' experience and a former ambassador to Zambia, arrived in Iraq on Friday, the source said.

Egypt's foreign ministry spokesman has described the move as an "important step to promote relations between the two Arab countries."

Shahin's arrival in Baghdad comes just days after a visit to Egypt by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

Cairo has had no official diplomatic representative in Iraq since the July 2005 abduction and murder by Al-Qaeda of its diplomat Ihab al-Sharif in Baghdad.

In October 2008, Ahmed Abul Gheit made the first visit by an Egyptian foreign minister to Iraq in 18 years.

Egyptian oil companies have said they are studying infrastructure and refining operations in Iraq.

November 9, 2009

"I was shocked as any sensible human being did when I learned about the senseless, appalling and cowardly act of violence in Fort Hood. This horrific attack is a complete violation of Islamic law and norms and the perpetrator is no way representative of the Muslim people or the religion of Islam. God upholds the sanctity of life as a universal principle. "and do not kill one another, for God is indeed merciful unto you" says the Quran in (4:29). Islam views murder as both a crime punishable by law in this world and as major sin punishable in the Afterlife as well. Prophet Mohammad said, "The first cases to be decided among the people on the Day of Judgment will be those of blood-shed.
 

"The Islam that we were taught in our youth is a religion that calls for peace and mercy. The first prophetic saying that is taught to a student of Islam is "Those who show mercy are shown mercy by the All-Merciful. Show mercy to those who are on earth and the One in the heavens will show mercy to you. What we have learnt about Islam has been taken from the clear, pristine, and scholarly understanding of the Quran, "O people we have created you from a single male and female and divided you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another." When God said "to know one another" He did not mean in order to kill one another. All religions have forbidden the killing of innocents. To kill an innocent human being is tantamount to killing the entire humanity.

"Let me be clear by reiterating that Islam is utterly against extremism and terrorism but unless we understand the factors that provide a rationalization for terrorism and extremism we will never be able to eradicate this scourge. This must be understood in order to build a better future that can bring an end to this grave situation that is destroying the world.

"My heart, my thoughts, and my prayers go out to the families who lost their loved ones. We offer our deepest and sincerest condolences to the families of the victims and pray for a speedy recovery of the wounded. We demand the perpetrator to be brought to justice and stand the trial.

Click here to read the rest of the article

October 4, 2009

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit reaffirmed Egypt’s support for the Yemeni government and people during his visit to Sanaa on Saturday.

"We reject... any form of rebellion and any foreign interference (in Yemen). Egypt is supporting its sister state Yemen by all means at its disposal," he told reporters in Sanaa. 

The visit comes as Arab governments moved on Sunday to support Sanaa in its bid to crush rebels in northern Yemen, while clashes erupted in the southern city of Dhaleh over the detention of southerners viewed by the authorities as secessionists. 

Arab League chief Amr Moussa is due in Sanaa on Tuesday to meet President Ali Abdullah Saleh and discuss efforts to restore calm. 

Click here to read more

September 29, 2009

Bloomberg

September 29, 2009

Egypt’s government expects to attract about $10 billion in foreign direct investment in the fiscal year through June 2010, up from $8.1 billion the previous year, Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin said.

“This is not hard to get,” Mohieldin said today at a conference in Cairo. The government will promote 52 projects to foreign investors, including Asian and Gulf Arab sovereign wealth funds, he said.

The government expects growth of more than 5 percent in the fiscal year through June 30 and is drafting a law to encourage companies to invest in infrastructure, Mohieldin said.

Egypt’s economy expanded 4.7 percent in the fiscal year, exceeding the International Monetary Fund’s forecast of 4 percent to 4.5 percent. That compares with the 7 percent growth that the country achieved in the previous three years.

The 52 projects that the government is promoting include energy, housing, water distillation and roads, Mohieldin said.

A support package of up to 15 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.7 billion) for infrastructure, proposed by the Economic Development Ministry last month, won’t be necessary unless investment by Egyptian or foreign companies falls short of targets, the minister said.

Click here for the full article

September 29, 2009

AP

Egypt's economy is projected to grow by over 5 percent in the fiscal year ending in June 2010, the country's investment minister said Tuesday. This latest projection is higher than the 4.7 percent growth achieved in the last fiscal year

Foreign direct investment, which along with tourism, the Suez Canal and worker remittances, make up the key revenue sources for the country, is expected to be about $10 billion in the coming fiscal year, Mohieddin said.

That is a rebound from the $8.1 billion level reported in the last fiscal year as the financial crisis squeezed the global economy.

Egypt had embarked on a sweeping financial and economic reform program several years ago. The country reformed its banking sector and is working on simplifying other business services.

It was ranked for the fourth year in a row among the Global Top 10 Reforming Governments by the World Bank.

Click here to read the full article

100 Facts about Egypt, Fact #3

September 28, 2009

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved today a loan in the amount of $300 million to support the Affordable Mortgage Finance Program.

The Affordable Mortgage Finance Program seeks to fulfill one of the government’s key priorities in providing affordable housing for low and middle-income households.

The Program is a result of the strong partnership established between the Ministry of Investment, the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development, and the World Bank.

“We are pleased to support the ongoing development of the mortgage market and the creation of a more efficient housing finance market that targets low and middle income groups,” said Emmanuel Mbi, Country Director for Egypt , Yemen and Djibouti .

The Program has three main components: Strengthening the legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the Mortgage Finance Subsidies Program; developing an effective and efficient mortgage finance subsidy mechanism; and improving the institutional framework to enhance transparency and targeting of housing subsidies. 

Click here to read the full article

September 28, 2009

Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif launched yesterday E-Signature services for the public and private sectors. The launch authorizes the Ministry of Finance and a number of companies to offer e-signature authentication services to governmental entities, public sector companies and individuals in Egypt.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dr. Tarek Kamel said that one of the most important usages of e-signature would be to issue permits, collect taxes and tariffs.

The E-Signature law reflects the Government's belief that facilitating IT tools and applications in using e-signature supports the transformation into an electronic world where the security of people's money and papers is further guaranteed.

In addition, the expansion in the use of e-signature adds to Egypt's competitiveness and is expected to boost investments.

Government’s savings as a result of this electronic authentication system are expected to be diverged into funding for social and development programs.

Click here to read the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Press Release

September 28, 2009

Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in an interview Friday with the Associated Press that Iran has a right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy but it must be verified by the U.N. nuclear agency.

Aboul Gheit said Israel is assumed to possess nuclear weapons, and if Iran is also acquiring a nuclear capability many countries in the Middle East would be uneasy, triggering an arms race.

Reacting to the news about Iran’s recently revealed uranium plant, Ahmed Abul Gheit told the daily Asharq Al-Awsat that the new uranium enrichment plant triggered "mounting suspicions", noting that the new plant in Qom signals intentions that should not be allowed"

The discovery of the plant's existence "is a negative development and we believe that Iran should have notified the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) years ago."

He stressed the necessity for the region, including Israel, to be free of nuclear weapons.

Click here and here to read more

September 28, 2009

Reuters

Egypt's first solar power station will operate at full capacity in 2010, state news agency MENA reported on Monday.

The agency quoted Minister of Electricity Hassan Younes saying the station, located just south of Cairo in Koraymat, would have a capacity of 140 megawatts.

The power station is part of a larger facility that also includes three non-solar units and is expected to generate 2,900 megawatts once it comes on-stream.

Younes said the project was already connected to the national electricity distribution grid, adding that 99 percent of Egypt's population was connected to the grid, the highest rate in Africa.

Egypt aims to generate 20 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020.

Click here to read more

100 Facts about Egypt, Fact # 7

September 27, 2009

Cincinnati Enquirer

A 6,000-square-foot exhibit titled “Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets, Modern Science” opens in October at the Cincinnati Museum Center. On display will be the mummy of a 4 year old boy, along with real artifacts and hands on activities illustrating Egypt’s culture and people.

The exhibit was created and produced by the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, where it premiered in May, and was built by the Science Museum of Minnesota. It includes human and animal mummies and scans showing what's inside them, a life-size rapid prototype of a mummy in a stage of unwrapping, forensic facial reconstructions and videos and photos showing Egyptology experts in the field.

The mummy of the young boy will appear at the exhibit's stop at the Museum Center, which received it as a gift from the Cincinnati Art Museum earlier this month. Museum Center officials believe Lost Egypt will mark the first time the mummy has been on exhibit. With no hieroglyphs to indicate his real name on the linen wrappings, they have named him Umi, which is pronounced "OO-me" and means "life."

"It hasn't been treated with total care, but it's still in remarkable condition," says Gene Kritsky, a biology professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph and a former Fulbright scholar in Egypt who has studied Egyptian amulets and hieroglyphics extensively.

The 38-inch-long mummy first arrived in Cincinnati in 1950, when the Cincinnati Art Museum acquired it from Edward L. Bernays of New York, a nephew of Sigmund Freud and a public relations pioneer whose clients included Procter & Gamble. In a 1949 letter, Bernays wrote that he obtained the mummy from "a distinguished student of the Near East," according to the Museum Center.

The University of Cincinnati took radiographic scans of the mummy in 1983, which revealed 24 small amulets and that the mummy likely was a 3- or 4-year-old boy based on its teeth and skeleton. The mummy originally had been identified as that of an 8- or 9-year-old princess.

But further investigation conducted this year has revealed much more about the mummy. University of Cincinnati radiologists conducted CT (computerized tomography) scans that produced high-resolution images showing things the 1983 scans could not detect: Molded reliefs of the amulets of Egyptian deities, animals and symbols and a wooden board, painted with hieroglyphs, on which the skeleton rests. With carbon dating, the board could help determine the child's age.

Click here to read more

Click here for more information on the exhibit

September 26, 2009

The plan that the Foreign Minister put forward on Saturday consists of 6 main points:

* Negotiations must begin at the earliest possible opportunity, with the international community providing a clear vision for a final settlement
* Israel must commit to and abide by a complete settlement freeze in all the occupied territories including East Jerusalem
* The settlement freeze must continue in parallel with the negotiating process to strengthen Palestinian confidence in Israel intentions.
* If an agreement on final borders is reached, and they will be based on the 1967 borders as agreed during US-sponsored negotiations in 2008, that agreement may implemented in a gradual manner on a time table agreed to by the parties.
* East Jerusalem in as integral and inalienable part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and a final status issue which must be part of any upcoming negotiations
* Israel’s engagement in serious, credible, clearly-defined and time bound negotiations may restore Arab engagement with Israel with a view to supporting mutual trust, and the negotiating process as a whole

On a related noted, the Egyptian Foreign minister along with the Secretary-General of the Arab League urged President Barack Obama on Friday to present his own outline of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, in order to break the current deadlock and spur negotiations.

Aboul Gheit said such a deal should be based on the idea of a Palestinian state in the territories occupied by Israel in the 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. A framework should also state that Israelis and Palestinians agree to live in peace and security, and outline steps toward normalization, he said.

This outline "would allow the parties to negotiate the end game," Aboul Gheit told The Associated Press in an interview, after meeting earlier in the day with Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell.

Click here to read more

Click here to read Minister Aboul Gheit’s full speech at the United Nations

September 24, 2009

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Egypt’s ambassador to the United States told a standingroom-only-crowd at the Clinton School of Public Service on Wednesday that resolving the many challenges in the Middle East, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is in the world’s best interest.

“The Israeli-Palestian conflict remains the most pressing issue in the Middle East,” Sameh Shoukry said during the lunchtime speech in Little Rock.

Shoukry acknowledged that Iran’s nuclear ambitions must be addressed and extremism must be combated, but said reaching a settlement for Mideast peace is vital.

“Resolving the conflict permanently and comprehensively with the goal of establishing ... a viable and sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza would first and foremost put an end to more than six decades of Palestinian suffering and contribute significantly to the security and stability of all the states of the Middle East,” he said.

The United States, he said, has a responsibility to play a key role in brokering an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Shoukry’s speech came a day after President Barack Obama met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to urge them to restart the Middle East peace process.

“Simply put, it is past time to talk about starting negotiations - it is time to move forward,” Obama said Tues- day after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“It is time to show the flexibility and common sense and sense of compromise that’s necessary to achieve our goals. Permanent status negotiations must begin and begin soon.”

Shoukry lauded Obama’s commitment to making progress in negotiations, especially at a time when Obama is dealing with issues such as a weakened economy and health care in the United States.

He also praised Obama for flying to Egypt in June to address Muslims and Arabs around the world.

In his speech, Obama said that as long as the relationship between Muslims and the West is defined by differences, “we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity.”

Shoukry said Obama has made a commitment to improving those relationships, but he must follow through.

“Although President Obama won the first round in the battle of captivating the hearts and minds, we all understand that one impressive speech will not erase years of mistrust and missed opportunities,” he said. “Deeds will have to follow words.”

September 24, 2009

Former Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. Nabil Fahmy issued a call to the UN and President Obama to make nuclear non-proliferation a top priority, ahead of today’s Security Council meeting on nuclear nonproliferation chaired by the U.S.

Ambassador Fahmy is the Dean of the School of Public Affairs at the American University in Cairo and Chair of the Center for Nonproliferation studies in the Middle East.

To read the full piece on The Huffington Post website, click here.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

A Clear Path Forward for the UN on Nuclear Disarmament

By Nabil Fahmy

This week, President Obama will chair a UN Security Council meeting on nuclear nonproliferation – the first time that a US president has ever done this.

In April, the U.S. president called for a nuclear free world in a keynote speech in Prague. At the time, many dismissed the remarks as the dreamy notions of a young administration with little national security experience. But President Obama's speech was not a lone shot in the dark. Several months earlier, four Cold War era American elder statesmen - Henry Kissinger, William Perry, George Shultz and Sam Nunn - had issued a similar call.

There is a new consensus forming around the nuclear issue and a new willingness for countries to act. For years, the nuclear debate revolved around those few countries that had nuclear weapons and those - equally small in number - trying to get them. Today, the security paradigm for the nuclear world has altered. The imminent threat no longer comes from a handful of superpowers, but the potential for the acquisition of nuclear weapons by unstable regimes and non-state entities. This reality affects us all. This status quo is not acceptable.

To read more, click here.

September 23, 2009

The 17th FIFA U-20 World Cup kicked off on Wednesday September 23 with a match between Egypt and Trinidad and Tobago in the Egyptian Army Stadium in Alexandria.

"We are reassured that everything is in place; no country could have done more than what Egypt achieved in such a period of time," Jack A. Warner, FIFA vice-president and Organizing Committee chairman, said in a press conference Wednesday.

"We are happy that Egypt, a country where football is like a religion, is hosting the second biggest tournament organized by FIFA with all this business and governmental support to the tournament," he added.

While all eyes will be on Egypt, more than 60 talent scouts representing top European clubs will be looking for future talents like Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho and Luis Figo whose launching pad was the U-20 World Cup.
With players like Mohamed Talaat, Ahmed Shokry, Moaz El Henawy and Mohamed Abu Gabal, the Egyptian team is aiming for the top spot and breaking their third place record reached in Argentina in 2001.

Click here to read more

September 23, 2009

The Daily News Egypt

Egypt sent a letter to the UN Security Council calling for a nuclear free Middle East and the monitoring of Israel’s nuclear program.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit sent the letter last week to the foreign ministers of the 15 member states stating that it was unacceptable that Israeli nuclear capabilities continue to be uninvestigated by Security Council and the rest of the non-proliferation system.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement Tuesday that it was “unreasonable that some countries should still be outside [the] legal framework [of nuclear non-proliferation], and be rewarded by having no restrictions on their development of nuclear capabilities”

A non-binding resolution was passed last Thursday by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), at the end of its annual general assembly, calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) as well as allow international observers access to its nuclear reactor in Dimona.

Click here to read the full text of the article
 

September 23, 2009

The Arkansas Star

The most compelling problems in the Middle East, from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to prospects of a nuclear-armed Iran, require full engagement by the United States to solve, Egypt’s ambassador to the U.S. said today.

“We are encouraged by signs of determination by the (Obama) administration,” Ambassador Sameh Shoukry said during a speech to students at the Clinton School of Public Service.

“These challenges have a wide-ranging impact both on the region and beyond,” Shoukry said. “This has led us to an obvious conclusion, in that positive engagement with the U.S. and rallying behind the international community is crucial to address these challenges.”

He said the U.S.-Egyptian partnership is strong, and he encouraged President Obama to move forward in efforts to help negotiate a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Shoukry also said Egypt supports Obama’s desire to “seek a world free of nuclear weapons,” and he warned that Iran’s development of nuclear weapons would set off a dangerous arms race in the Middle East.

Click here to read the full text of the article

Check back here for a video of the Ambassador’s full speech

September 17, 2009

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

A third Egyptian medical convey began its mission in Darfur on September 16 according to a statement by the spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

The spokesman noted that Egypt had dispatched a medical convoy in April 2009 that included 40 physicians that were assigned to the main hospitals of the three capitals of the Darfur region, and that a medical convoy that had treated 18,000 Darfurians was also sent in mid-July.

Egypt’s assistance to Darfur also includes sending food aid to various cities (at a cost of approximately USD 1 million from January to July 2008), digging wells in Darfur, providing training programs in agriculture, health and education to governmental and non governmental agencies. Egypt’s assistance aims at supporting peace, stability and development in Darfur.

Please click here to read the article on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

September 13, 2009

Al-Masry Al-Youm

The National Center for Social and Criminological Research signed an agreement on Saturday with UNDP “Benaa Program”, a human rights capacity building initiative, to conduct a comprehensive study on human trafficking in Egypt. 

Ambassador Wael Aboul-Magd, Director of the Human Rights department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking, which has worked on addressing all aspects of human trafficking since 2007, saw the need for a comprehensive study to provide research based guidance to national policy making on this issue, and, in particular, to focus government efforts to combat this these illicit activities, and plan public awareness campaigns. 

On a related issue, Ambassador Naela Gabr, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for International Agencies, and chairwoman of National Committee, organized a meeting with representatives of civil society to explain and consult with them on proposed Anti-Human Trafficking Legislation. She stated that “the proposed law is based on the need to protect the rights of victims, and stress [their lack of criminal responsibility] for any illegal acts they may commit as victims, as well as providing them with all necessary health, legal, social and economic assistance”.

Please click here to read the article on the Al-Masry Al-Youm website.
 

September 11, 2009

Egypt State Information Service

The mayor of Tianjin Huang Xingguo is seeking to boost cooperation with the Northwest Gulf of Suez in order to increase the flow of investments in the region after Tiida Egypt, a Chinese company, won a bid to develop the North West Suez Economic Zone.

In a meeting with Egyptian Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin on Thursday 9/10/2009, Huang said that Beijing will be offering a USD 20-million grant to establish an investment service building in the area. According to Mohiedlin, the project will not only attract investors but it will also create jobs in the region.

Chinese investments in Egypt have recently increased with China owing shares in 865 Egyptian companies.

Please click here to read the original article. 

September 10, 2009

Since the launch of “A computer in every home” initiative - which aims to provide 100,000 subsidized computers a year at a reduced price to families that cannot afford the price of a computer otherwise- more than 180,000 computers have been sold. The initiative seeks to not only make computers more affordable and accessible, but also aims to promote the use of the Internet.

The initiative, which was initiated in 2006 by Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamal is part of the government’s commitment to increase access to technology and the internet, and is one of the components of the Egyptian Information Society Initiative (EISI), which the Ministry is implementing jointly with all Egyptian ministries and authorities to turn Egypt into a digital society through the spread of ICT tools. 

Please click here to read the original article on Al-Ahram news. 

Please click here to read the press release from the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

September 10, 2009

Al-Ahram 

Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin will be attending a special summer session of the World Economic Forum in the city of Dalian in China today. The minister and his delegation also plan on touring three high tech zones in the province and meeting with Chinese officials.

The minister said that his visit to China had been very fruitful having achieved its main goals and that other Egyptian delegations will also be visiting China soon, including the planned visit by the prime minister next year.

Mohieldin also inaugurated on Saturday the Egyptian-Chinese Investment Forum, which will support economic cooperation between the two countries.

Please click here to read the original article.

Please click here to read more.
 

September 10, 2009

Daily News Egypt

CAIRO: Egypt’s world ranking has improved a dramatic 11 places. Unfortunately for football fans, Egypt’s dramatic rise was in the World Economic Forum’s “World Competitiveness Report 2009/2010” and not the recent FIFA rankings.
Egypt is now ranked 70 in global competitiveness, up from 81 in the 2008/2009 edition of the report.

The report was generated based on surveys of business executives coupled with publicly available databases. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain moved just a single place forward. Qatar and the UAE remain the highest ranked in the region, both were in the top 30. 

Algeria’s shift was even more dramatic than Egypt’s, moving from 99 up to 83rd place. While Tunisia and Oman tripped a few spots in the ratings, Syria took a tumble from 78 to 94.

The report notes the pros and cons of doing business in Egypt. Executives highlighted the size of the Egyptian market, which was ranked 26, as well as the recent improvements in infrastructure.

Egypt has been heavily investing in infrastructure to boost the local economy: a new terminal at Cairo International Airport, completing the Ring Road in Cairo and accompanying bridge. Work has also begun on a new metro line and turning the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road into a freeway.

Much of the government’s stimulus package was spent on these improvements, which will assist the flow of goods and labor domestically.

Egypt also gets good marks for streamlining procedures to start a business, removing barriers to entering the market and most recently launching e-registration for new companies.

Those surveys noticed it now costs less time and money to begin new entrepreneurial efforts. Entrepreneurship is important to Egypt as it struggles to deal with unemployment.

At the same time, the report criticized the inflexibility of the local labor market, taking issue with the difficulty and high cost of firing employees. This makes employers reluctant to hire and serves to depress employment, especially for women, which prompts many to turn to the informal sector.

Malak Reda, of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies, which contributed to the World Economic Forum report, noted that, “The situation approaches a dichotomy between the formal and informal labor sector. In the informal sector of course there is no firing and women’s participation in informal and agriculture is huge so we must be
cautious with official figures.” 

Nagla Rizk, a development economist at the American University of Cairo, concurred, noting that “Egypt, like any developing country, has a huge informal sector which sometimes gets left out of the national survey… micro-finance efforts also go uncounted.”

Both executives surveyed and Malak Reda noted that corruption is a problem in Egypt where baksheeh is a cultural phenomena. “Dealing with corruption is critical and there must be more effort,” Reda said, “The corruption laws need to be enforced and serious penalties need to be applied for those engaging in corruption.” 

Commenting on the World Economic Forum report, CI Capital said, “Since the onset of the global economic crisis, the government has shown continuous commitment to support Egypt's economy. By pumping in a LE 15 billion stimulus package; announcing a new set of investment incentives; and loosening monetary policy which was reflected in a GDP growth of 4.7 percent in fiscal year 2008/09.” 

The formalization of the informal sector is also essential, though Reda noted the problems inherent in formalization. “It is quiet difficult you don’t pay taxes and all the sudden you have to deal with a property tax and you don’t understand how it is calculated — it gives more incentive to avoid areas with taxes.” 

Increasing revenues from taxes is key to economic growth and one of the major reforms the country has undertaken in the past years. “Slowing expenditure, and aided by implementing an efficient tax collection system the fiscal deficit was contained to 6.9 percent of GDP versus a budgeted ratio of 8 percent. Such efforts have been reflected in the improvement in the investment climate and the country’s ranking amid the region,” said CI Capital. 

Reda doubts the government will be able to fulfill its commitment to reducing the budget deficit. “If they maintain the budget deficit I will be very happy, though of course at the present the government is in need of liquidity,” she said.

Egypt also did well in specific categories. Egypt was number 78 in basic requirements, 80 in efficiency enhancers, 71 in business sophistication and innovation. 

Please click here to read the article on The Daily News Egypt.

September 9, 2009

CNN 

For the beautiful people, Azza Fahmy may be one of the best-known names in Egypt. 

A high-end jewelry designer, Fahmy's creations have adorned such beauties as supermodel Naomi Campbell and Queen Rania of Jordan. 

Her international luxury brand, Azza Fahmy Jewelries, blends Egyptian motifs and modern design to create high-end pieces. Working with precious metals and stones, Fahmy's work is inspired by the distinctive shapes, colors, textures and calligraphy of the country.

Cairo, the largest city in the Arab world nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets," is Fahmy's home. She thinks she may have lived a previous life in old Cairo, which has now grown into a mega-city of almost 20 million inhabitants.
"It's a strong feeling when I'm walking in the streets going to old houses, churchs and old mosques," Fahmy told CNN. "It's something inside me which I can't describe, as if I've lived before in these places." 

In the 1960s, Fahmy was the first woman to apprentice in Cairo's jewelry district. She says she'd whither and die if she ever had to leave Egypt. 

She takes us on a personal tour of the beguiling Egyptian capital, where she finds inspiration in almost everything she sees. "Everything in my mind is jewelry," she explains. "I turn it into jewelry." 

Ibn Tulun Mosque 

The sprawling Ibn Tulun Mosque, the largest mosque in Cairo in terms of land area, is also considered the oldest mosque in the city to have survived in its original form. 

"It's one of my favorite mosques in Cairo," Fahmy says. "The beautiful windows of this mosque give me a lot of joy."
Fahmy says she's always fantasized about the windows of Ibn Tulun. "One day I'll do a project called the Ibn Tulun collection, because they have 126 windows, I think, and each one is different. I see them as earrings, hanging earrings," she says, laughing. 

"They are geometrical designs each one different from the other, "she explains.

The jewelry designer says Ibn Tulun makes her feel serene, inspires her to "sit and meditate. The mosque is very strong, very discreet and very beautiful at the same time." 

The Hanging Church 

Fahmy explains that the 7th century Hanging Church, known in Arabic as Al-Muallaqah ("The Suspended"), is the most famous Coptic -- a sect of Christianity native to Egypt and Ethiopia -- church in Cairo. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. 

"Each civilization gives the other civilization something and each civilization takes something from the other civilization," Fahmy explains about the different faiths in the Egyptian capital. "There is a continuity in the art."
"Look at the details of the wood carving!" she exclaims there. "Look how they mix the pattern," she says, gently tracing it with her finger.

"You see this pattern? The cross in the middle and four rectangles around it? I want to do the design of this as a rectangle and then the motifs in metal." 

Fahmy says she she's always searching for beautiful text -- inspiring calligraphy -- to use in her work. The Egyptian designer describes calligraphy as an art in itself, "the movement of the lines and the balance of the lines and the meaning in the text." 

El Moez Street 

"This is one of the oldest streets in Cairo," Fahmy explains as she walks along the colourful street bursting with life. "This street is part of me. It's my history, my life, my youth. This is the real soul of Cairo." 

Fahmy stands in front of the Al Aqmar Mosque, known as "the moonlit," and says she's inspired by the details in the architecture. Her eyes are immediately drawn to details throughout the city, she says. "All my life is details, details, details. You become specific about everything." 

"Do you notice these black and white stripes?" she asks. 

Fahmy says she loves the way black and white are mixed together in Cairo to "create all this balance."
"Art is all about balance. They are perfect in how they balance things." 

Workshop 

"I used to work in this place, Rabeh El-Selehdar," Fahmy explains as she enters the workshop where she trained as a young jewelry-making apprentice. "It was 40 years ago." 

"I went to the workshop, I introduced myself to a man named Hajj Said and then I worked with him for about three years," she said, no small feat for an Egyptian woman in the 1960s. 

She warmly greets one of the men working at the workshop. 

"He is the nephew of my master. He still remembers me," she explains. "I used to sit on this table and I used to help them file and solder. It was the beginning of my life." 

Fahmy's business, which evolved into the first Egyptian designer brand, is a family affair. Her daughters, Fatima and Amina, work with her. 

"I love the idea of the family business," she says. "I'd like to give this to my daughters [to] continue. I want to have a design house which can continue with the same message of carrying the Arab culture to the world."

Please click here to read the article on CNN.com.

September 7, 2009

World Squash

Amr Shabana overcame a phenomenal fightback from top seed and fellow Egyptian Ramy Ashour in the final of the Aon US Open final to win the $52,500 5-star PSA World Tour squash title in Chicago.

The three-time world champion raced through the opening two games with some astonishing winners to delight a sell-out crowd around the glass court set up in the open air off Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, known as the Magnificent Mile. 

Number two seed Shabana was certainly in magnificent form and a quick finish seemed on the cards as he won the second 11-2. Shabana opened up a 4-0 lead in the third game but Ashour began to work his way into the match, taking control from 4-6 down to win 11-7. 

Despite that confidence booster, the 21-year-old reigning world champion made a slow start to the fourth game and Shabana won the first five points and maintained that lead to stand within three points of the title at 8-3. 

However, Ashour stepped up the pace and produced a succession of blinding winners as the crowd roared their encouragement. Shabana held match ball at 10-7 but Ashour won five points in a row to force the tiebreak and lead 12-11. Shabana leveled at 12-12 but Ashour maintained his push to clinch the game 14-12. 

The crowd, boosted by hundreds of spectators enjoying a free view of the action through the front wall, were delighted that the match was heading for a fifth game. Ashour led 3-1 at the start of the final game but Shabana regained control to lead 9-5. Ashour won the next two points and then sportingly conceded that a backhand drop shot was down as Shabana screamed at the referee. 

That gesture gave Shabana match ball at 10-7 and, although Ashour claimed one more point, the 30-year-old closed out an entertaining contest in 57 minutes of spellbinding squash. 

“Ramy is such a great player and as a world champion at 21 years old he seems to have been around for years,” said Shabana after his epic 11-7, 11-2, 7-11, 12-14, 11-8 victory. 

“He came back very strongly to win the third and fourth games and I was pleased to win the fifth game.

“The players have all enjoyed this tournament in Chicago and it’s great to see such big crowds around the court every night.” 

The players earned warm applause for providing an evening of outstanding entertainment and Ashour was given an extra ovation for his sportsmanship. 

He said: “As professional players, we have to be honest with each other on court, even though it gave Shabana match ball. Shabana played very well tonight and made it hard for me in large parts of the match. 

“I know I should be angry for losing but I am happy that we made the match very entertaining for the crowd.”
The triumph extends Shabana’s tour title tally to 24 – and also endorses the latest September Dunlop PSA World Rankings in which the former world number one leapfrogged younger rival Ashour to take third place. 

The win, which also extends his head-to-head count against Ashour to 7-5, will boost Shabana’s hopes in this week’s British Open in Manchester, where the third seed is expected to face compatriot Karim Darwish – his successor as world number one – for a place in the final. Runner-up in 2004, Shabana has yet to win the longest-standing title in world squash.

Please click here to read the article on World Squash.

September 3, 2009

Almasry Alyoum

The Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center, reported that Egyptians organized over 125,000 charity dinners in the month Ramadan, the annual Islamic month of Fasting, of 2008, serving free meals to over 1.9 Million people at a cost of nearly USD 93 Million. Known as, “Mawa’id El-Rahman” or “Banquets of the Merciful”, in reference to God’s Mercy, and the blessings of the Month of Ramadan, these meals are served at sunset when the fast are open to anyone who wishes to attend.

Please click here to read the original article.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of the Press and Information Office and are the sole responsibility of the original author/source.
 

September 3, 2009

El Sherouk

In a update released yesterday, the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) reported a national recovery rate among persons infected with H1N1 of 84%.

The report, in the Egyptian daily newspaper El-Sherouk, added that the IDSC had stated that there had been only one H1N1-related fatality to date and that of the 743 cases of infection reported so far, 626 had recovered completely, and the remaining 116 are in good condition.

Please click here to read the original article.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of the Press and Information Office and are the sole responsibility of the original author/source.
 

September 3, 2009

Almasry Alyoum

Egyptian Investment Minister Dr. Mahmoud Moheiddin said that the impact of the global economic crisis on the Egyptian economy had been less than expected, particularly in light of last year’s pessimistic outlook. Speaking on the sidelines of the Ministry’s launch of its new electronic company registration service, the Minister said that Egypt’s investment promotion strategy moving forward was to focus on countries that have been least affected by the global crisis, adding that he would be visiting China soon to attract investment in 250 new projects in Upper Egypt, the West Suez area, and the Red Se, as well as in the infrastructure and trade sectors.

To read the original article, please click here. 

To read more, please click here.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of the Press and Information Office and are the sole responsibility of the original author/source.

September 3, 2009

Al-Ahram Weekly

President Mubarak met with EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana for talks on the situation in the Middle East Peace Process, and other regional issues of common concern to Egypt and the EU, including the situations in Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan. 

At a press conference after their meeting, Mr. Solana said that their talks were focused on the need to drive the peace process forward, particularly before the next session of the UN General Assembly this month, noting that in this regards the EU and Egypt share the same perspective. Asked to explain the EU’s policy on a settlement freeze by Israel at a press conference after their meeting, Mr. Solana said that “The position of the European Union is very clear, and it is that all [forms] of settlement activity must be frozen”.

In related news the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu El-Gheit, speaking at a press conference after a meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister on regional issues, including difficulties in the formation of a new Lebanese government and tensions between Syria and Iraq, stated that the Palestinians and the Arab states insist that the Israeli government declare a clear, and international acceptable position on a complete settlement freeze, including East Jerusalem. The Egyptian Foreign Minister also stated that the if an appropriate temporary freeze was announced, direct talks could begin, but that they would be co-terminus with a settlement-freeze period, adding that Egypt rejected an open ended commitment to negotiations coupled with a fixed-term freeze to settlements.

Please click here to read the article on the Al-Ahram website.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of the Press and Information Office and are the sole responsibility of the original author/source.


 

September 2, 2009

El Sherouk

The president of Qatari Diar, announced his firm plans to invest nearly USD 5.4 Billion to build a new residential city in Hurghada. The Qatari real estate, which has been operating in Egypt since 2006, is also involved in major investments in Sharm El-Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Cairo. The project will spread over an area of 29 km and will be completed over 15 years.

Between 2000 and 2008, Annual NET Foreign Direct Investment in Egypt has grown 26 fold, attracting USD 38 Billion.

For more information on investment in Egypt visit: http://www.gafinet.org/English/Pages/default.aspx

Please click here to read the original article.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of the Press and Information Office and are the sole responsibility of the original author/source.
 

September 1, 2009

El Sherouk

The president of Qatari Diar, announced his firm plans to invest nearly USD 5.4 Billion to build a new residential city in Hurghada. The Qatari real estate, which has been operating in Egypt since 2006, is also involved in major investments in Sharm El-Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Cairo. The project will spread over an area of 29 km and will be completed over 15 years.

Between 2000 and 2008, Annual NET Foreign Direct Investment in Egypt has grown 26 fold, attracting USD 38 Billion.

Please click here for more information on investment in Egypt.

Please click here to read the article on the El Sherouk website. 

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of the Press and Information Office and are the sole responsibility of the original author/source.

August 29, 2009

The Jerusalem Post

During Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's visit to the US capital earlier this month, comments and media reports focused on the possible restarting of the diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians. Little was said on the other issues, which is what the two leaders intended.

However, the main purpose of the visit had been to achieve a thaw between Egypt and the United States after an estrangement of some years which had become an embarrassment to both countries.

It had started with former US president George W. Bush and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's well-meaning efforts to bring democracy to the Middle East.

Intense pressure was brought to bear on the Egyptian president to convince him to do something about human rights and to hold free and transparent elections.

Mubarak gave in against his better judgment. The November 2005 elections brought 88 opposition members - closely affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood - into the parliament. That was a fifth of the total number of representatives and it would have been more if the government had not taken some last minute (and highly undemocratic) measures to stop the trend.

Even the Bush administration took fright at this undesirable result.

It was too late: Congress had already cut American help to Egypt by $100 million and allotted $50m. to Egyptian NGOs fighting for human rights.

Since then a deeply offended Mubarak had refrained from visiting the United States. The strategic dialogue between the two countries went on, however, since it is of paramount importance for both, and included such issues as containing Iran, fighting terror, and the diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians.

Then Obama was elected and everything changed. He came to Cairo in June to deliver his message of reconciliation to the Muslim world, had talks with Mubarak at the G-8 meeting in Italy last month and warmly invited him to a much publicized visit to Washington.

The old leader met all the important players, from Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to National Security Adviser James Jones and CIA director Leon Panetta. Mubarak also found time for a meeting with representatives of Jewish organizations to explain his policy towards Israel, a time honored tradition.
Following his talks with Obama, Mubarak declared that his Cairo speech had removed all doubts concerning the new American policy towards the Muslim world, thus giving Obama Egypt's seal of approval and putting an end to the coolness between the two countries.

After all, in Cairo the American president had given low priority to human rights issues, and the message had been well received by Arab leaders and particularly by Mubarak.

Arab media sources did report that the rais had discussed with his hosts in Washington some of the most pressing issues affecting the Middle East: Iran's aggressive policy and the situation in Sudan and in Somalia, which are perceived as a threat to the stability of the region as a whole, but more specifically of Egypt.

Also discussed was the war on global terror and the latest developments in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Egypt was wary of Obama's stated intention of opening a dialogue with Iran, because it would weaken the position of the Gulf States and of the moderate Arabs.

Cooperation between the intelligence services of Egypt and the United States was also emphasized, as a means to help Cairo since it is a prime target of terrorist organizations. However, the subject is all important to America as well since US and other countries's warships transit the Suez Canal on their way to the Persian Gulf.

Much had been made of the fact that an Israeli submarine and two missile boats had gone through the Canal the month before, in a clear attempt to illustrate the ongoing dialogue among the US, Egypt and Israel concerning the Iranian threat.

At the same time, in an effort to defuse potential negative reactions in Arab public opinion, Egypt was at pains to stress that it would not allow foreign troops or missiles on its soil. While clearly positioning itself at the head of the moderate Arab camp against Iran, Egypt still sends mixed signals. That's the way things are done in the Middle East.
From Arab sources one can infer that the situation inside Egypt and the social and economic reforms needed were discussed at length, as well as the way the country is gearing itself towards the general elections in 2010 and the presidential election scheduled for 2011.

According to the recently released findings of the United Nations Development Program, 41 percent of Egyptians live below a poverty line set at $2 a day, 12% suffer from Hepatitis C, and 40% are illiterate. Unemployment has reached 25%. These are the critical issues as far as Mubarak is concerned. He is well aware of the fact that holding elections as things stand could open the door to mass demonstrations. The past two years have seen a number of strikes - a previously unprecedented occurrence - and the government had to raise salaries.

To fund that step, subsidies of basic foodstuffs were slashed and their price went up accordingly. Most badly hit was bread, and this led to a new crisis. Army bakeries had to be pressed into service to produce bread at government approved prices. Whatever reforms Mubarak promised Obama, it is therefore highly doubtful that he can deliver, and there is little hope for a bettering of the economic situation.

To all intent and purposes, election campaigning has already started. Popular opposition movement "Kefaya" (Enough!) is already calling for a boycott of the forthcoming elections since, it says, "they can't possibly be free," and is trying to convince opposition parties to join. On the other hand, the Egyptian government is working hard to weaken the Muslim Brotherhood, which it sees as the main opposition force. Hundreds of its militants, including a number of leaders, have been arrested.

Hosni Mubarak turned 81 this year. He has been in power for 28 years. Though he is not known as suffering from significant health problems, one can see that the man is tired. The untimely death of his favorite grandson has taken its toll. He is therefore unlikely to seek reelection in 2011.

He might even resign earlier in order to hold presidential elections closely after the parliamentary elections. The seasoned leader wants to leave the country in safe hands and not risk an open election which might lead to the surprise victory of an untried politician or worse of a Muslim Brother. Such an outcome would probably provoke an army intervention and total chaos, not only in Egypt but throughout the Middle East.

This is why Mubarak, while denying having such an intention, seems to be grooming his 47-year-old son Gamal for the job. He made him deputy secretary-general of the ruling National Democratic Party and the head of its political commission.

In 2007, the elder Mubarak initiated an amendment to the constitution making it possible for Gamal to be the sole candidate of the party while making it more difficult for independent or opposition candidates to run.

At the same time, the name of Omar Suleiman, head of the intelligence services who holds ministerial rank, is often put forward by the media as a possible successor.

As things stand today there is no legal way he could be a candidate, since he does not have any position in the party institutions.

The fact that Gamal Mubarak came with his father to Washington is worthy of notice. It was probably intended to give him some much needed experience as well as to get him to know and be known by policy=makers in the American capital.

The younger Mubarak also launched an Internet dialogue with an Egyptian youth... as did Barak Obama at the beginning of his own campaign. By "coincidence," a well-known Egyptian singer launched a song asking, "Why should he not rule? Why should he not take the reins... Gamal Mubarak, president, son of president, don't listen to gossip on inheriting the power..."

Protests organized by the Coptic minority and Muslim opposition elements in front of the White House under the aegis of Saad Eddin Ibrahim failed miserably and barely made it into the news.

As we have seen, the media focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Prior to his arrival, Mubarak had stated time and time again that he was against normalization between Arab states and Israel as long as the peace negotiations had not been completed, adding that there should be a freeze on construction in the settlements, though he stressed that negotiations were the main point.

He also said that Arabs were weary of the endless Palestinian issue but that without a solution more violence would occur.

Obama took pain to praise Israel for taking down illegal outposts and eliminating a number of road blocks in the West Bank. He stressed the need for a courageous leadership not only in Israel and on the Palestinian side but also in Arab countries.

The two presidents are in agreement on the urgency of the issue, though well aware of the impossibility of making progress as long as Hamas rules half of the Palestinian population. They are also aware of the fact that Israel will never accept an imposed solution, not from the American president nor from Arab countries in the guise of the "Arab initiative."

Mubarak did say that Obama would present a new initiative at the UN General Assembly in September, but this was denied by a State Department spokesman. There is no doubt, however, that the American president will address the issue on that occasion.

Mubarak has no illusions about the likelihood of Palestinians and Israelis reaching an agreement under present circumstances.

Egypt has launched an all-out effort to bring about reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, but has little to show after a year. Still, demonstrating that it is a main player on issues affecting its own security is of paramount importance for Cairo.

Egypt is also trying to mediate between Israel and Hamas on the issue of Gilad Schalit, but lack of results has led it to agree to let a German mediator have a go.

The problem is that radical forces in the region, such as Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas, no long accept long-established understandings. They exhibit an irrational stubbornness even at the price of causing great suffering to civilian populations such as in Gaza.

Egypt had to increase its control over the border, and indeed has managed to greatly diminish the flow of contraband weapons into the Strip.

To sum up, it was indeed an important visit even if little has transpired of the contents of the talks. Egypt after all is not only the largest Arab country, with the largest Arab army; it is also a much needed US ally.

Obama who now understands much better the difficult situation of his visitor, will probably tone down his criticism in order not to further destabilize the country. He also developed warmer relations with the aging leader. Altogether, a very positive development.

Please click here to read the article on the Jerusalem Post website.

August 19, 2009

Washington Post

Acknowledging that the Middle East peace process is in a "rut," President Obama nonetheless voiced confidence Tuesday that a breakthrough can be achieved -- and he thanked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whom he hosted for meetings at the White House, for playing a constructive role.

"There has been movement in the right direction," Obama said. "If all sides are willing to move off of the rut that we're in currently, then I think there is an extraordinary opportunity to make real progress. But we're not there yet."

Mubarak, addressing reporters alongside Obama, conveyed his willingness to aid the effort. "We are trying and working on this goal, to bring the two parties to sit together and to get something from the Israeli party and to get something from the Palestinian party. If we, perhaps, can get them to sit together, we will help," he said.

Mubarak and Obama's meeting, their third in three months, marked a significant departure from the previous administration -- when Mubarak and President George W. Bush divided over human rights and U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Tuesday's events reaffirmed that relations have become warmer. But it was unclear how much progress the two would make on their top priority: jump-starting the Middle East peace process.

Soliman Awaad, Mubarak's spokesman, said Obama told the Egyptian president that a blueprint for such a process should be ready next month. Next week, George J. Mitchell, the special U.S. envoy for Middle East peace, and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are scheduled to meet.

Obama has sought to persuade Arab nations to move forward with concessions to Israel, but has found little success. Mubarak, in an interview published Monday, said it is up to Israel to take the next step. And he said he told Obama in June, at the time of the U.S. president's address in Cairo to the Muslim world, that Israel must stop the expansion of its settlements.

"Some Arab countries that exchanged representatives and trade offices might think of reopening these offices if Israel committed itself to stop settlement expansion and to resume final status peace negotiations," Mubarak said in an interview with his country's state-controlled newspaper. Egypt and Jordan are the two Arab nations that have peace agreements with Israel.

Mubarak, who met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday, had a one-on-one session with Obama in the Oval Office, then joined a session involving other participants before a working lunch in the Cabinet Room.

In the Bush era, relations were strained over the U.S. push for democratic reforms in Egypt. Human rights groups say that country's authoritarian government detains people arbitrarily and puts them on trial in security courts that do not meet international standards for fairness.

The government also jails people for peacefully expressing opinions, the groups said.

State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley told reporters after Mubarak's meeting with Clinton on Monday that the democracy and human rights situation in Egypt was "an ongoing source of concern to the United States" and added: "It is something that we raise in every high-level meeting that we have. We would like to see Egypt embark on a path to expand political dialogue in its country, expand political participation in the Egyptian political process."

Steven A. Cook, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it appeared that the Obama administration did not want to view the U.S. relationship with Egypt mainly through the prism of democracy.

"I think there is an effort to see the relationship in broader terms, because the experience of looking at it through the straw hole of democracy and democracy promotion and reform proved damaging to the relationship," he said. "Let's be realistic, Hosni Mubarak and the people in the regime don't really have an interest in reform."

After Obama met with the Egyptian leader, he held separate meetings with Clinton, who just returned from an 11-day trip to Africa, and former president Bill Clinton, who recently brought home two U.S. journalists jailed in North Korea. The latter meeting prompted Clinton's first trip to the White House since Obama took office.

Bill Clinton avoided reporters by taking a side entrance into his former residence. Hillary Clinton did not attend; a spokesman said she was scheduled to meet with the foreign minister of Colombia.

Please click here to read the article on the Washington Post website.

August 17, 2009

Charlie Rose

In an exclusive interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stressed the need for a holistic and lasting solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He highlighted Egypt’s “laborious efforts” to unify Hamas and Fatah, acknowledging that unity has to occur before there can be peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Defining the borders of a Palestinian state will unlock many of the other issues of a final agreement, Mubarak said, adding that the Israeli government’s recent acceptance of a two-state solution was a positive first step.

“What I can say is that we have to consider the whole issue holistically, to negotiate on the final resolution,” Mubarak said in the interview.

Please click here to watch the entire original interview on Charlie Rose.

August 13, 2009

Dr. Abdel Monem Said Aly is Chairman of the Board of the Al Ahram Newspaper and Publishing House and Director of the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.

August 10, 2009

Jerusalem Post

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday and thanked him for the country's "security steps taken for the sake of the region and Israel," Army Radio reported.

It came after security around Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Shalom Cohen was tightened following the discovery of a plot to assassinate him.

Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Uzi Arad headed out to Cairo, with the Prime Minister's Office stressing that his meetings there would have nothing to do with the Gilad Schalit issue.

On Sunday, Palestinian media reported that the captured IDF soldier would be released in a prisoner swap deal by September. 

Please click here to read the article on the Jerusalem Post website.

July 30, 2009

Agence France Presse

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit discussed Middle East tensions with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during a visit on Wednesday.

The meeting, which played to Brazil's ambition of having a role in helping negotiate peace in the Middle East, took place a week after Lula talked over the same issues with visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who also took part in the discussions, reiterated the view that peace in the Middle East could only be achieved through the creation of an "economically viable" Palestinian state that was not broken up by Israeli control lines.
He also lent Brazil's voice to the international community's consensus that Israel should immediately cease expanding settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

Abul Gheit hailed Brazil's stance, saying: "Brazil can play a role (in the Middle East peace negotiations) because it has political as well as economic potential."

Brazil plans to extend its Middle East mediating position by receiving Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the next few weeks, followed by Israeli President Shimon Peres in November.

Latin America's biggest economy is seeking the extra clout as part of its longterm ambition to one day join the UN Security Council as a permanent member. 

Please click here to read the article on the Agence France Presse website.

July 28, 2009

Los Angeles Times

Even before giving his phenomenal speech in Cairo, Egypt, President Barack Obama was already popular in the Arab world’s most populous country. In less than six months in office, Obama was able to overcome eight years of profound distrust and frustration during the Bush administration and dramatically boost America's image in Egypt.

For most Egyptians, Obama -- unlike his predecessor -- is sincere and even-handed, with the potential to bring peace to the region. Most important, Obama is viewed as someone able to make a distinction between Islam and terrorism, which for the majority of Muslims is a huge leap forward.

It is not surprising, then, that a survey released this month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that positive public attitudes toward the United States have surged in U.S.-allied Egypt and Jordan since Obama took office.

More and more Egyptians view Obama as a “star.” Young Egyptians often comment on his attractive looks, physical fitness and charisma. Elder Egyptians cite specific policies such as Obama's pledge to close the U.S.-run detention facility for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the U.S. timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq. In total, the Pew study shows confidence that Obama will "do the right thing in world affairs" is quadruple that for Bush in Egypt and Jordan.

However, not surprisingly, the study finds attitudes toward the United States continued to be dismal in many other predominantly Muslim countries. Only 14% of those surveyed in Turkey, 15% in Palestinian Territories and 16% in Pakistan had a favorable view of America.

Undoubtedly, the main reason for this in the Middle East, at least, is that people want to see real progress made in resolving the conflict between Israel and Palestinians. For eight years, they saw negotiations and heard an American President promising to leave a legacy of peace in the region. But no solutions were delivered. It is only natural that people in the region are skeptical.

What is important for both Middle Easterners and Americans to realize is Obama cannot wave a magic wand and quickly deliver results or instantly fix his country’s image in eyes of the Mideast. It is wrong to assume Obama can simply turn on peace like a light bulb or improve America’s image in the region overnight. Nevertheless, the poll has some good news and the Pew’s findings should sit well with the White House. 

Please click here to read the article on the Los Angeles Times website.

July 27, 2009

Agence France Presse

US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell called on Arab states on Monday to fully normalise ties with Israel, after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the latest leg of a regional tour.

Mitchell told reporters after the talks that Washington was asking countries in the region to set the "context" for comprehensive peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab world.

"By comprehensive I mean peace between Israel and Palestinians, between Israel and Syria, between Israel and Lebanon and the full normalisation of relations between Israel and the countries of the region," he said.

"We're not asking anyone to achieve full normalisation at this time, we recognise that will come further down the road in this process," he said.

But he added that the US administration wanted to see "meaningful steps by individual countries."

Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab countries to have signed peace treaties with Israel, but neither have fully normalised ties. Some other Arab countries, such as Qatar, have trade relations with Israel.

After the Mubarak meeting, Mitchell headed to the occupied West Bank where he is to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. On Tuesday he will hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, likely to focus on US demands that Israel halt settlement activity in the West Bank.

On Sunday, he met Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Olmert in Tel Aviv. 

Please click here to read the article on the Agence France Presse website.

July 27, 2009

Voice of America

Special U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell is in Egypt as part of a push to resume Arab-Israeli peace talks.

George Mitchell looked tired but sounded upbeat, on the latest lap of his shuttle mission that has brought him from Syria and Israel to Egypt.

The visit was his fifth to Cairo and the second in just more than a month and a half. One Egyptian analyst quipped Senator Mitchell is starting to become "a household name in Egypt and the Arab world."

Egyptian TV showed the envoy meeting with President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Ahmed Abou Gheit, reporting that he briefed them about his weekend talks with Syrian President Bashar al Assad and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

After the meetings, Mitchell told journalists it is imperative to achieve a full and comprehensive peace in the region to improve the lives of everyone

"We believe that a full comprehensive peace represents the best way to help all of the people of the region achieve the security, the peace, and the prospect for prosperity for individual citizens that all deserve," Mitchell said.

The former senator said he has taken his plea for normalization in relations with Israel to various Arab leaders during his travels across the region.

"We are also meeting with the leaders of many of the Arab nations of the region to encourage them to take genuine steps toward normalization," he said. "We are not asking anyone to achieve full normalization at this time, we recognize that that will come further down the road in this process."

Egypt has had full diplomatic relations with Israel since the 1979 Camp David peace accords were signed by former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. But Israelis often complain that it is a "cold peace."

The Arab daily al Hayat headlined that Syrian President Bashar al Assad told Mitchell, over the weekend, that "Arab rights and the return of the Golan Heights," were at the top of his agenda.

An Arab summit, earlier this year, called for Israel to accept a 2002 Arab peace plan, which calls for "full normalization, in exchange for the return of occupied lands."

Please click here to read the article on the Voice of America website.

July 27, 2009

Monsters & Critics

Yossi Gal, the director of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday arrived in Cairo at the head of an Israeli diplomatic delegation.

Gal would meet with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and other senior Egyptian diplomats over the course of his afternoon visit, the Israeli Embassy in Cairo said.

'The visit, which aims to promote relations between Egypt and Israel, is part of the regular contact maintained by the two states,' Israeli Embassy spokeswoman Shani Cooper-Zubida said.

Gal's visit comes amid a US diplomatic blitz to restart negotiations for a 'comprehensive' Middle East peace.

George Mitchell, US President Barack Obama's special envoy to the region, met with Abul Gheit and Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak on Monday morning, and left Cairo shortly before Gal arrived.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was in Israel Monday, and is to continue on to Jordan. National Security Advisor James Jones and administration official Dennis Ross were also expected in the coming days.

A Middle East peace deal remains one of Obama's 'top priorities,' Mitchell told reporters in Cairo.

'We believe that a full, comprehensive peace presents the best way for all the people of the region to achieve the security, peace and prosperity all its citizens deserve,' he said, and urged a 'prompt' return to 'successful negotiations.'

Mitchell arrived in Cairo on Sunday night, in an unscheduled stop after meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv.

Speaking from Cairo Monday, he again called on Middle Eastern countries to normalize their relations with Israel.

Mitchell said he would be meeting with leaders in the region 'to encourage them to take meaningful steps toward normalization.'
But, he noted, 'We don't expect anyone to take steps toward full normalization at this time; we expect this will come further down the road in this process.'

He said his efforts were now focused on preparing 'the context' for meaningful negotiations soon, based on 'mutual respect and mutual interests.'

Please click here to read the article on the Monsters & Critics website.

July 27, 2009

San Francisco Chronicle

Ministers from the 10 African countries on the Nile river began crucial discussions Monday over drafting a new water sharing agreement, which is hampered by Egypt's refusal to reduce its share of world's longest river.

In an opening address to the Nile Basin Initiative, held in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif urged for a "return of the cooperation and harmony" among the group's members, describing the ongoing dispute as a "misunderstanding."

In the two-day meeting, participants are hoping to conclude the Nile Cooperative Framework Agreement, which establishes a permanent body to oversee water allocation along the Nile.

During talks last month in Kinshasa, Congo, officials from the 10 countries of the Nile basin, failed to agree over a new system of water sharing desired by a majority of the members.

A 1929 agreement between Egypt and Britain, acting on behalf of its then east African colonies, set up the original sharing framework and gave Cairo the right to veto upstream projects.

In a 1959 agreement with Sudan, Egypt was awarded an annual 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water, the largest share of any country along the river.

The remaining eight riparian states resent Egypt's quota and want to draft a new agreement.

Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohammed Nasreddin Allam has repeatedly said that his country will not accept any change to its quota.

Egypt's cabinet issued a report last week that the country needed 86.2 billion cubic meters of water in 2017 and only has resources of 71.4 billion cubic meters.

A country of vast deserts, only around 6 percent of Egypt is arable, almost entirely due to the Nile.

Egypt's water resources stood at 64 billion cubic meters in 2006, of which the River Nile provided or 86.7 percent, the report said. By 2017 the Nile is expected to supply only 80.5 percent of Egypt's resources.

Due to the absence of any major dams or hydroelectric projects upstream of it, experts say Egypt can afford to be dismissive of the other states' concerns since there is little they can do to impede the Nile's flow.

Talks in Kinshasa ended with Egypt refusing to ratify the new pact without the other signatories explicitly agreeing to its original share of Nile water and a veto for Cairo over any future upstream projects. 

The other Nile basin countries are Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Burundi. 

Please click here to read the article on the San Francisco Chronicle website.

July 23, 2009

Jerusalem Post

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday called on the Arab world to engage with Israel and praised the opportunity afforded by the Arab initiative for regional peace.

"I believe that this spirit can help create an atmosphere in which a comprehensive peace is possible," Netanyahu said in a reception at the residence of Egyptian Ambassador Yasser Reda in Herzliya.

"We appreciate the efforts by Arab states to advance the peace initiative," the prime minister said, adding that "If these proposals are not final, they can create an atmosphere in which a comprehensive peace can be reached."

Netanyahu said that he nevertheless hoped to "forge peace with the Palestinians" in the coming months and years "and to expand that into a vision of a broader regional peace."

The prime minister extolled the leadership of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, saying, "We appreciate (Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak's efforts to ward off the radical forces and push towards peace. Egypt is our cornerstone for peace with our neighbors."

He qualified his positive remarks regarding Cairo to a certain degree, however, when he added that the two countries were still far from a "very warm" peace.

Netanyahu also praised Bahraini Crown Prince Shaikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa for a Washington Postop-ed in which he said that the Arab world had "not done enough to communicate directly with the people of Israel."

The Arab Peace Initiative was presented by Saudi King Abdullah in 2002. It calls for normalizing relations between Arab states and Israel in exchange for a total Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 armistice lines and a "just solution" to the Palestinian demand for the return of refugees from the War of Independence.

Please click here to read the article on the Jerusalem Post website.

July 22, 2009

Israel National News

Omar Suleiman, the director of Egypt’s general intelligence service and a possible successor to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, has been named the most powerful intelligence chief in the Middle East by Foreign Policy Magazine. 

It is widely believed the president is grooming his son, Gamal Mubarak, to succeed him, but Suleiman is very popular and may have the backing of factions within the military.

Some Egyptian analysts see his popularity as a staged buffer to help Gamal succeed his father in a smooth transition, while others see him as one of various powerful contenders for the presidency.

Dalia Ziada, an Egyptian liberal activist and blogger, said that were Suleiman to run in the next presidential election she did not believe he would have a good chance of winning.

“Maybe the ruling National Democratic Party will support him,” she told The Media Line, “but at the end of the day, he’s a national security man, he’s not a politician. He’s not good in dealing with internal and external politics.”

Ziada predicted the Egyptian government would use Suleiman as a mediator, putting him in power straight after Mubarak so that it will not look as though Mubarak were passing on the throne to his son.

Suleiman’s apparent popularity was highlighted in a recent survey Ziada carried out independently on her blog, in which she asked participants to rank their choice for the next president.

In the first phase of the survey, she provided the participants with six candidates, and asked that they propose other candidates if they were not satisfied with the selection.

Many wrote back asking her to add Suleiman into the mix, she said.

In the second phase of the survey, however, Suleiman only garnered four percent of the 3,000 votes received.

Ziada argued that Suleiman’s popularity was to a large degree confined and would not lead him to presidency.

“He’s popular, because he’s leading a very critical authority in Egypt, which is the Mukhabarat [intelligence service],” Ziada said. “Anyone in his position must be respected by Egyptians, but it does not mean they’ll select him when it comes to their future.”

Suleiman, 74, became director of the country’s intelligence service in 1993 after an extensive military career, and is said to be one of a very small circle of people in whom Mubarak trusts.

Suleiman has helped Mubarak clamp down on Islamist opponents and the intelligence chief’s combating of Islamist terrorists increased his standing in the eyes of Western intelligence services after 9/11.

More recently, Suleiman has been serving as a high-ranking diplomat and has been the main mediator in the indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas.

He is also Cairo’s main interlocutor for several Palestinian groups engaged in reconciliation talks.

Mubarak has been president for the past 28 years and there is wide speculation that the 81-year-old leader will not be seeking another term in office. Some believe the President may even step down before the end of the his current tenure, set to come to an end with presidential elections slated for 2011.

Analysts say that even if Suleiman does not succeed Mubarak, he is still likely to maintain a powerful role in the regional scene.

Hala Mustafa, editor in chief of the Democracy Review, a political quarterly published by the Al-Ahram Institute, said it was very difficult to measure anyone’s popularity in Egypt outside of the ballot box.

“But I can say [Suleiman] is respected among the elite and among the ruling party and ruling elite in general,” she told The Media Line.

Rather than have Suleiman and Gamal Mubarak run against each other, she said it was more likely that Gamal would be groomed for the presidency and Suleiman for the vice presidency.

If Suleiman wishes to run for president he would have to resign from his position as intelligence chief and run either as an independent or as a candidate of the ruling party, Mustafa said.

The Foreign Policy Magazine report, authored by U.S. Department of Defense employee Patrick Devenny, places Suleiman at the head of a list of five other “spooks” who include Israel’s Mossad Chief Meir Dagan, head of the Iranian Quds Force Qassem Suleimani, the Syrian military’s deputy chief of staff Assef Shawkat and Saudi Prince Muqrin Bin ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz, the director general of the Kingdom’s General Intelligence Presidency.

Please click here to read the article on the Israel National News website.

July 21, 2009

Agence France Presse

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday arrived for talks in Paris to revive the Mediterranean Union initiative and the Middle East peace process, the foreign ministry said.

Mubarak who was to see his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy over lunch on Tuesday, held talks with Prime Minister Francois Fillon at his Paris hotel after arriving in the afternoon, Fillon's office said.

Fillon did not give details about the talks which lasted 45 minutes.
No statements were expected Tuesday after Mubarak's meeting with Sarkozy.

The French foreign ministry said the visit was "taking place within the normal framework of bilateral relations".

Mubarak and Sarkozy are expected to discuss "regional issues, the Middle East peace process and to assess the relaunch of the Mediterranean Union as well as the [G8] summit" earlier this month, the ministry said.

At the July 8-10 summit Mubarak had urged the leaders of the world's richest countries to freeze repayments due on loans to Africa in order to help the poorest through the economic crisis.

The Egyptian leader addressed a working meeting between the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States and eight African leaders on the closing day of the G8 summit in Italy.

Launched at a summit in Paris a year ago, the Mediterranean Union brings together EU members with states from north Africa, the Balkans, the Arab world and Israel in a bid to foster cooperation in one of the world's most volatile regions.

But like its regional predecessor, the Barcelona Process which stalled in large part over Arab-Israeli disputes, the Mediterranean Union got bogged down by Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas missile strikes.

The initiative, championed by Sarkozy, resumed last month when environment ministers, including representatives from Israel and the Palestinian territories, met in Paris.

The union's priorities are to fight pollution in the Mediterranean, increase solar energy use, build land and sea highways and cooperate on higher education and research.

They are to be achieved by joint projects, which it is hoped would also help improve regional integration.

Please click here to read the article on Agence France Presse.

July 19, 2009

Agence France Presse

"Egyptian officials decided that some issues required further discussion and efforts. The date for the last round of talks, July 25, does not leave enough time to resolve the differences," MENA quotes Palestinian officials as saying.

"So it was agreed to delay the talks until August 25," the officials said.

The rival Palestinian factions resumed reconciliation talks in February and had agreed to begin what they said would be a final round on Saturday.

Cairo has been mediating the talks between president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah party and the Islamists of Hamas aimed at healing bitter divisions between the two, aggravated when Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Hamas and Fatah delegations have been meeting in Cairo over the last two days to discuss the talks' progress.

The talks hope to seal a deal which will lay out a new electoral law as well as define the make-up of security forces and of a committee to liaise between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank ahead of an election in 2010.

Hamas has demanded that Abbas's Palestinian Authority release all "political prisoners" -- referring to the scores of Hamas members arrested in the Israeli-occupied West Bank -- or provide a timetable for their release.

Both sides have since announced the release of dozens of prisoners.

Fatah and Hamas have accused each other of persecuting their rival's supporters in the territories under their control, while human rights groups have accused both groups of making arbitrary arrests and mistreating detainees.

The two groups deny they make political arrests, saying the arrests are made on security grounds.

July 15, 2009

Associated Press

A summit of the Non-Aligned Movement opened at this Egyptian Red Sea resort town Wednesday with a call from Cuban President Raul Castro for a new international financial system to shield developing nations from the global recession.

Castro was addressing the opening session of the movement's two-day summit at Sharm el-Sheikh, the 15th such gathering since the group was founded in the 1950s.

"We demand the establishment of a new international financial and economic structure that relies on the participation of all countries," Castro said. "There must be a new framework that doesn't depend solely on the economic stability and the political decision of only one country," the Cuban leader said, apparently referring to the United States.

The new system, he said, must give developing countries "preferential treatment." He did not elaborate.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon also touched on the global economic crisis when he addressed the summit, echoing Castro's demand that more must be done to protect the economies of developing nations and give them a bigger say.

"The economic crisis has revealed the need to improve the international financial architecture, so we may see the developing world and emerging powers gain more of a say in that realm," he said. "That would be a welcome step toward realizing the NAM's (Non-Aligned Movement's) long-standing goal of making the international system more fair and balanced."

Castro later handed the movement's presidency over to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country will head the group for the next three years. Egypt, India and the former Yugoslavia are the movement's founding members.

The 118-nation Non-Aligned Movement was born during the Cold War more than five decades ago as a group of countries that is neither allied with the U.S.-led camp or the Soviet bloc. A middle course, they argued then, was in their best interest.

However, the movement has lost much of its relevance when the Cold War ended nearly two decades ago. Made up mostly of African, Asian and Latin American nations, it has since become primarily an international speaking forum for developing nations.

Mubarak, in his address, recognized the "challenge" facing the movement's founding principles, which he said seek dialogue with the developed world. He also joined Castro in calling for the rehabilitation of the international financial system. Terrorism, nuclear weapons and the Palestinian issue are among issues requiring collective action, he said.

Castro's call for a new world financial system follows a similar demand by foreign ministers and senior officials from the movement who warned after four days of meetings here that the global financial crisis will adversely affect their developing nations the most. Joint action, they said, was needed to ward off its impact.

The summit's draft declaration also calls for the group to coordinate with China - attending the summit as an observer - to have their voices heard at international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The focus on the world economy coincides with U.S. efforts to build what it says is a stronger financial foundation for the world.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, the second and final day of a tour of Gulf Arab nations. He met Tuesday with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and businessmen in the oil-rich kingdom and had a closed-door breakfast meeting Wednesday with the Emirates' Foreign Trade Minister Sheikha Lubna al-Qasimi and other UAE officials.

"We of course want to not just address the immediate causes of the financial crisis," Geithner said after Wednesday's meeting. "We want to rebuild a stronger foundation for more balanced growth globally."

The prime ministers of nuclear powers Pakistan and India, meanwhile, were expected to meet on the sidelines of the summit in what would be one of the conference's highlights. The two leaders met in Russia last month for the first time since the Mumbai terror attacks last year, but they made little headway in defusing the tension in their relations.

India blamed Pakistan-trained militants for the attacks, which killed 166 people.

The two countries' foreign secretaries met for 90 minutes on the sidelines of the Sharm el-Sheik's meeting Tuesday night, apparently to prepare for Wednesday's meeting of the two prime ministers, according to a diplomat familiar with the meeting but who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

July 15, 2009

Financial Times

Mr Abdel Wahab already has E£25m ($4.5m) of equity in the business, and an established record exporting pads to Europe, but even so, lenders have been balking.

“Last year it would have been easier,” says Mr Abdel Wahab. “I have not failed yet. There are promising negotiations with a bank. But it has not been easy.”

Raising funds for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt has always been difficult but Mr Abdel Wahab, who also heads the Engineering Exports Council, says the financial crisis has made banks even more cautious.

SMEs make up the majority of the industrial private sector in Egypt, says Adham Nadim, executive director of the government’s Industrial Modernisation Centre.

The centre deals with 12,400 companies that account for more than 95 per cent of Egyptian manufacturers, says Mr Nadim. Most of these are small businesses, of which only 13 per cent employ more than 200 workers.

Mr Nadim says that times are harder for the sector but most entrepreneurs are still managing to hang on and “that there is no huge trend to let workers go”.

The Egyptian economy grew by 4.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2009, up from 4.1 per cent in the previous quarter.
Analysts, however, caution that this rate may not be sustainable given the weakness of external demand. In the preceding three years growth averaged 7 per cent.

Mr Nadim says securing funding for SMEs has become more difficult in spite of the healthy state of Egyptian banking, with a high deposit-to-loans ratio.

“Access to finance is disastrous because you have a lot of people who don’t want to take a bold decision in the banking sector,” says Mr Nadim, whose organisation is negotiating with 17 banks to improve access to credit.

He also says that increased government borrowing may have depressed banks’ appetite for lending to SMEs, especially in an atmosphere of enhanced sensitivity to risk.

“Treasury bills are in direct competition with the private sector,” he says. “Why would a credit officer lend to the private sector when he can just give the money to the government and wait for it to come back.”

In the case of Mr Abdel Wahab, the brake-pad manufacturer, the problems of the automotive industry both internationally and domestically have made bankers wary.

But he argues that in Egypt the psychological effect of the crisis has often been greater than its real impact. Many people, he says, who can afford to buy cars, have held back expecting prices to drop, while lenders have scaled down their car loans, which has also affected the market.

“We saw in the earlier part of the year a drop in demand for cars by 50 to 60 per cent,” he says. “But we didn’t really see anything to justify it.

“Now we are seeing more activity in the car market. In other areas, such as white goods, demand is also starting to increase. Companies are not complaining as they used to.”

Nihal Badawi, the head of SME banking at Commercial International Bank, the country’s biggest bank by market capitalisation, says that SMEs, especially those that do not rely on exports, have been in a better position to cope with the crisis than bigger export-dependent companies.

All the same, she says the crisis has meant the bank has revised its risk management practices by, for instance, limiting exposure to certain sectors.

“For example there are industry limits, reviews to certain exposures and we also ensure full compliance with Central Bank of Egypt standards,” she says.

However, she denies that banks are reluctant to lend. The problem, she says, is that such companies often fail to keep orderly books or they “don’t have the proper structure, so the owner may be running everything. Sometimes they might not even have a business plan. To be bankable we need to educate them.”

Banks, too, she says, are still building up capacity to deal with SMEs and understand the risks involved.

Restrictions on funding have not been the only impact of the financial crisis on SMEs. The contraction in export markets coupled with what Egyptian industrialists allege is dumping by Asian companies has also led to a tougher business environment.

“Egypt is a target for dumping because it has not been so affected by the crisis,” says Mr Nadim.

“Everything is being shipped over here. Access to credit locally is very harsh, so when someone offers an importer a product with a four-year interest free loan and nothing to pay in the first 12 months, in my book this is dumping.” 

Please click here to read the story on the Financial Times website.
 

June 19, 2009

On June 19, 2009, the following column ran in the Wall Street Journal, authored by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

President Barack Obama's seminal address in Cairo marked a turning point in America's relations with the Muslim world. His message was clear and incontrovertible: It is issues of politics and policy, not a clash of values, that separate the Muslim world and America. It is the resolution of these issues that will heal the divide. Click here to read more