Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil revealed that negotiations are ongoing between the Egyptian and Russian sides to resolve some issues regarding the Russian industrial zone. He said that there may be requests for tax exemptions from the Russian side, but this may result in providing other investors with exemptions.
The Russian trade minister, Denis Manturov, revealed that Russia is expecting to sign the governmental international agreement with Egypt during autumn of this year.
During the sohour party organised by the Ministry of Trade in Al-Masah Hotel two days ago, Kabil considered the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) recent decision to increase the interest rate by 2% as a right one, noting that any decision comes with pros and cons and that this recent decision aims to control inflation but will not have an effect on industry on the long term. He also predicted a decrease in inflation in November.
Kabil pointed out that the ministry has launched 11 million metres of industrial lands last year, which is more than what was launched over the past nine years. He stressed that the ministry deliberately avoided industrial developer companies to enter into agreements in order to avoid high prices or exploitation of lands. “There is high demand on industrial lands,” he said.
Kabil revealed that the ministry aims to offer 15 million metres this year, where the offerings will be in Sadat City, 10th of Ramadan City, Badr City, and Suez City.
The minister did not explain the government’s stance from the file of reducing the prices of gas in energy-intensive factories, but he said that the state is less inclined to subsidise everything, because more subsidisation leads to more consumption.
“In all countries of the world, citizens pay for the services they receive, and only citizens who need subsidisations should be the ones to receive it. The government announced that it will stop subsidisation, including the one provided for factories. The industrial sector must stand on its feet by enhancing quality, reducing cost, and increasing competition, according to Kabil.
He described the increase of population in Egypt as disastrous, as population growth is more than that of agricultural lands, which stresses the importance of the one-and-a-half-mllion-feddans project.
Regarding the free trade agreements, the minister said that his ministry is seeking to hold a series of meetings over the upcoming period to introduce exporters to the Mercosur agreement, which was recently implemented, in addition to the Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ) protocol.
He explained that free trade agreements cannot be seen only as trade, but also as investment. He noted that the ministry assessed the free trade agreement with Turkey and discovered that Egypt benefitted greatly from it, with a noticeable improvement in the trade balance between the two countries.
Regarding the free trade agreement with the US, the minister said that Egypt prefers to go into this file gradually and that is seeks to start with the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), while negotiations will take place later regarding the free trade area.
He revealed that the executive regulations of the Industrial Licenses Law will be completed soon. “We are currently working on the final touches and will be sending them to the parliament soon,” he said, pointing out that the Industrial Development Authority works according to the law until regulations are issued.
The minister admitted that the exports of agricultural crops have faced troubles over the past period, so the ministry is currently working with the Agriculture Export Council to monitor crop exports. He stressed that each shipment will be subject to tests, adding that there are negotiations with a specialised association and approved by the European Union to review shipments.
Regarding the little demand on the offered cement licences, which are estimated at 11, Kabil explained that the process of studying cement licences now is different due to the increased cost after flotation.
Regarding the issue of commercial representation offices, the minister stressed that the problem was solved and that portions of salary payments were made this month, with 30% expected to be paid until full payments are made.
“Commercial representation offices have a main role in bringing investments and increasing exports, but their expenses have increased noticeably at some point, which we managed to deal with through going over the map of our representation offices; and we shut down 11 offices we did not consider strategic, and we opened new offices in the African market, which helped reduce expenses by 40%,” the minister added.
The total volume of foreign trade operations financed by banks operating in the domestic market during the period from 3 November 2016 to 25 May 2017 amounted to $35bn, according to Tarek Fayed, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).
In a statement on Wednesday, Fayed said that banks had paid letters of credit and collection documents worth $25bn, next to opening new letters of credit worth $10bn.
Imported operations, financed by banks since the flotation, have so far included basic commodities and non-essential goods, with production inputs, food commodities, and medicines at the top of the list of goods financed by banks.
According to statements by officials of The National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr, the two of them accounted for the largest share of funding for imports.
Vice chairperson of the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) Yehia Aboul Fotouh said that the bank secured funding of $8.5bn to finance the import operations of the private and government sectors, since the flotation of the pound so far, including the opening of letters of credit.
Akef El Maghraby, vice chairperson of Banque Misr, said that the bank financed imports of $5bn since the flotation in November.
CBE Governor Tarek Amer said in previous remarks last week that banks collected $25bn from clients from the flotation of the pound on 3 November 2016 until now.
On another matter, Amer said, during his meeting with President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Tuesday, that the decision to raise the interest rate by 2% aims to curb inflation, which has become a main obstacles for investment. He added that the CBE takes into account all segments of society and seeks to stabilise—through these decisions—prices and adjust markets.
Amer revealed that during the first two days of raising the interest rate, Egypt received $1bn of foreign investment flows, reflecting the success and validity of the monetary policy, which takes into account the conditions of domestic and international markets.
During a roundtable held by the bank on Tuesday, Drion said that the money was raised to cover its clients’ demands of foreign currency for imports. He noted that the flotation of the pound was the correct decision and will have positive impacts on the Egyptian economy and the Egyptian banking sector, expressing optimism about the future of the economy.
He also pointed out that the bank obtained a supportive loan of $30m from its mother group, noting that the first tranche of the loan has been received in April and that it will receive the second tranche before the end of June.
In another matter, Drion said that the number of its clients in Egypt reached some 360,000 clients.
He added that his bank has a plan to expand in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, next to the introduction of more electronic product services, including mobile payments.
He pointed out that the parent group supports the bank’s activity in Egypt, adding that the bank also plans to launch a community development institution and change the slogan of the bank to “an integrated bank for you”.
According to Drion, the bank has achieved a 51.6% growth in profits in the first quarter of the current year, reaching EGP 475.1m. He added that the bank’s deposits have grown by 43.3% compared to the first quarter of 2016, registering EGP 39.245bn—up from EGP 27.396bn at the end of March 2016.
The loan portfolio rose to EGP 18.786bn at the end of the first quarter, up from EGP 15.059bn at the end of the first quarter of 2016.
Wali Lotfy, head of retail banking and microfinance at Credit Agricole Egypt, said that the bank has a portfolio of about 6,000 SME clients, accounting for 10-11% of the total loan portfolio, which fits within the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) initiative.
He pointed out that the bank aims to reach the ratio of 20% set by the CBE for 2020.
Most real estate developers claim that the increase in prices is due to the 100% increase in the price of raw materials after the Egyptian pound flotation.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) had decided in early November to liberalise the exchange rate, when the dollar value reached EGP 19.
Therefore, the developers see that big jump in dollar value affected the cost of raw materials for the construction process. Companies raised the prices between 15% and 40%.
The majority of Egyptians are choosing to buy property as a safe haven against the large changes in the value of the Egyptian pound, which prompted many companies to raise prices to stimulate clients to buy at the moment, in addition to convincing them that the value of real estate increases with the high prices.
A recent study conducted by YouGov revealed that the trend of 48% of respondents wanted to invest in real estate after the pound’s flotation.
Tom Rhodes, exhibition director of Cityscape Egypt, said that real estate developers have raised their prices by rates ranging between 25 and 30%, following the decision to float the Egyptian pound last November.
Emad Al-Masoudi, the chief executive of the online portal Aqarmap, told Daily News Egypt that real estate prices rose during the last three months of 2016 by 16% to 35% during the year, while property prices in the previous year rose by 13%.
Ashraf Dowidar, CEO of ARDIC for Real Estate Development
At the same time, real estate prices during the first three months of the current year saw a monthly increase of 5%, recording a 15% increase during the total three months. This increase is an adverse reaction to high inflation.
Al-Masoudi added that it is certainly a corrective case to adjust market prices to match the dollar.
At the Cityscape Egypt Conference held in March, he said that real estate prices rose by 9% during one month after the floating of the pound and rose again by 5% at the beginning of the current year, and then again by about 35% during the first quarter of the current year. He expected that prices would continue to rise to 50%, but not more than that.
Ashraf Dowidar, CEO of ARDIC for Real Estate Development, told Daily News Egypt that the company raised its prices by 25%, adding that this increase came as a result of the contracts signed with contractors at the time of having the price of the dollar at EGP 7, but that when the company opened the door of booking units, the dollar reached EGP 12, up about 70%; and in the current period after the flotation, the dollar value reached EGP 18 and the contractors are asking for an adjustment in the price.
Therefore, the cost of construction increased by 100%, while the natural increase in prices reached 40% to 50%.
“We are increasing with the extension of payment to facilitate the process to the customer,” said Dowidar.
On the other hand, Ashraf Salman, the chairperson and CEO of AUR Capital and executive president of ARCO said that the company did not increase its unit prices by more than 15% after the flotation decision, while maintaining long-payment periods set by the company before the flotation for up to 12 years.
Ashraf Diaa, the managing director of ERA West Associates, said prices had risen twice, the first time before the flotation and dollar appreciation in March 2016 and the other time after the flotation in November. Before the flotation, some companies and developers stopped their sales because of recent increases in the price of the dollar and its unavailability to reoffer their project with higher prices, according to the dollar value at that time.
ERA Commercial Real Estate Egypt is a full-fledged real estate firm, specialised in providing commercial and residential real estate services in Egypt.
Diaa told Daily News Egypt that after the flotation, price increases ranged between 20% and 38%.
Diaa added that as a result of economic circumstances and the pound depreciation, which fell after the flotation, the buyer was forced to accept the highest prices and forced the developer to set up facilities such as a 10–year payment period. For example, the Lavande project of ARCO gives a payment period of 12 years.
“Some companies resorted to decreasing the down-payment or remove it altogether and all the facilities provided by the companies, because the analytical situation of the market says that the prices of raw materials are increasing and developers cannot provide more increases in unit prices so as not to lose customers. Additionally, companies do not want to postpone their commitment to deliver the units, as agreed on in contracts,” noted Diaa. “Real estate companies extend the payment period while they simultaneously raise prices, so the customer does not feel the large increase in price.”
Diaa advised to buy before Ramadan because this month will see further increases in unit prices.
He pointed out that price increases by real estate companies and developers gave the opportunity for small companies to attract new customers and sell their projects in the same areas as large real estate companies and developers.
Price increases led to the redirection of some 80% of customers as they redirected to other companies with more facilities and lower prices or less specifications and less spaces.
Wadila Developments CEO Maged Helmy
Wadila Developments CEO Maged Helmy said that his company raised its prices by not more than 10% following the appreciation of the dollar and the floatation of the Egyptian pound, as a result of the high prices of all building materials and the cost of implementation of real estate units.
Helmy told Daily News Egypt that the company raised prices less than the real increases in the cost of construction, in order to not harm the customers and to meet the needs of a large tranche of those people.
He pointed out that the percentage of the increase reflects the strength of the financial position of the company and its commitment to customers.
Furthermore, Beta Egypt for Urban Development’s chairperson, Alaa Fekry, told Daily News Egypt the average price increase in the real estate sector following the liberalisation of the exchange rate ranges from 20% to 30%, and Beta Egypt maintains prices of some units of its projects and raises the prices of other units by only about 10%.
He added that there are high rises in the prices of building materials, which resulted from the rise of the dollar value. For example, the price of concrete increased by 70% and aluminum by 80%, and the average rise in the cost of construction of the metre is estimated at 65%.
On his side, the Saudi-Egyptian Construction Company (SECON) CEO Darwish Hassanin said the cost of carrying out the company’s projects increased by 20-25% following the rise in the prices of construction inputs. The company has raised the prices of units of new projects to cover the burden of these increases in costs.
He noted that the Egyptian economy faces a challenge, namely the exchange rate and the challenges of recovering the value of the pound, pointing out that if the flotation of the Egyptian pound is purely a bank decision, it requires some economic measures to ensure the return of the pound’s value, including increasing resources of foreign currency, through increasing exports, providing foreign currency through the reduction of imports, and establishing alternative industries and crops in Egypt.
cost of construction process increased by 100%, thus the natural increase in prices reached 40% to 50%
While the head of the Building Materials Division at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC), Ahmed Al-Zainy, told Daily News Egypt that the increase of prices of local building materials, such as sand and cement, ranged from 2% to 20%; imported materials increased by 30% after flotation, although they reached 50% to 60% in the second half of 2016; and construction brick prices increased by only 20%.
Al-Zainy added that the large price increases carried out by real estate companies are unjustified and large compared to the increase in prices of building materials.
However, Daker Abdellah, member of the board of directors of the Egyptian Federation for Construction and Building Contractors (EFCBC), said that the crisis of building material surges extended to road projects, which were affected significantly by the rise of raw materials, the most important of which is bitumen (used for road surfacing and roofing), which represents more than 75% of the value of the budget of road construction. The price of a tonne of bitumen increased by 133.5% after the pound flotation, where its new price now stands at about EGP 6,070 per tonne instead of EGP 2600 before the flotation. This represents a new burden on construction companies. Furthermore, the increases reduced working capital of small and medium enterprises because they cannot afford those increases that began since March 2016 and the liberalisation of the exchange rate in November 2016.
“The road works represent about 20% of the cost of carrying out residential projects, so the increase in this cost will enforce developers to raise the prices of housing units and to load the burden on the citizen in the end,” said Abdellah.
He warned of the tumbling of some real estate companies in the coming period, especially small ones, following the recent changes that are represented in dollar appreciation and its impact on the prices of building materials and the cost of carrying out housing units, in addition to high wages and the application of VAT and other challenges that contributed to raising the cost of implementation.
Daily News Egypt interviewed Ayman Sami, JLL’s Egypt director, to talk about the real estate market and the tenants’ tendencies in light of the current economic conditions.
OLX Properties Egypt recently published its first annual property report, focusing on user behaviour trends. The report has identified that the top 5 locations searched for on OLX are Nasr City, Maadi, Sheikh Zayed, Heliopolis, and Fifth Settlement. Can you explain us the clients’ demand for these areas?
The data indicates that there is migration from central Cairo and Giza to the outskirts, such as the Fifth Settlement and Sheikh Zayed, with residential supply there growing from 113,000 to 126,000 units between 2015 and 2016. There is still demand for areas like Heliopolis, Nasr City, and Maadi, as all those districts continue to host many multinational corporations.
What does the flotation of the pound mean for the office market?
The current market supply of administrative offices stands at 1,028 million square metres of grade A with an additional 70,000 square metres expected to be delivered during the other three quarters of 2017. 60,000 square metres out of those 70,000 square metres are supplied by Cairo Festival City.
Most of the grade A administrative offices are rented with dollars, and after the liberalisation of the exchange rate, the rent has doubled. Therefore, there are negotiations between tenants and owners to decrease the rent or put a limit to rent costs.q
Ayman Sami, JLL’s Egypt director (Photo handout to DNE)
What is the percentage of price increases for renting?
For example in central Cairo, rents per square metre decreased by 5.7%, but there were no shifts in West Cairo and New Cairo. I think the decrease is due to some attempts to stablise rent prices, such as putting limits to the dollar value, the current value, and other developers or owners decreasing the rent, as well as other ways, such as extending payment periods. However, some developers and tenants are in the stage of negotiations and the vision may be clear in the second quarter report. Due to the high value of the dollar, some tenants redirected their demand from grade A to grade B. Furthermore, some clients tended to buy buildings to equip administrative offices in these buildings.
What is the percentage of occupancy of administrative offices?
The percent of occupancy of grade A administrative offices is 73%, while it is expected to decrease in the coming period. We don’t have a 100% occupancy, which means that there is a sequential request on administrative offices and this happened in downtown and central Cairo.
What is the demand on the residential market?
The demand is still strong on residential units. The supply is 126,000 square metres with an expected 11,000 square metres to be added during 2017.
The secondary market was strong in the last period but it dropped for some time because people tended to trade in foreign currency. After that, primary sales witnessed a strong demand as clients preferred to invest their money.
What is the size of growth in the residential market?
The growth rate in residential is very high. From 2015 to 2016, the supply reached 13,000 units [113,000 square metres] with an 11% growth.
In the light of the dollar appreciation: what is the size of foreign demand on property?
After the EGP flotation, unit prices decreased by 50% if calculated in dollars, however, local prices increased by 30%. This explains the increase in demand by foreigners. Currently, real estate prices decreased by 35% to 45% according to dollar value.
What is the expected increase in unit prices?
It is about 25% to 30% y-o-y.
What is the supply of retail in the Egyptian market?
The retail supply in Q1 2017 is 1.6 million square metres, the occupancy rate is about 83% grade A. The most important event is the inauguration of Mall of Egypt. Last year, there was a problem in availability of foreign currency, but this year there is a problem related to increases in costs: sales decreased and there is great competition between local products and imported products, which may affect the retail market.
After the great demand that the Cityscape exhibition witnessed in late March, do you expect an increase in supply in residential units?
I expect an increase of 10% in supply.
Which sector is benefiting from the stablisation of the pound?
The residential and the hospitality sector are the ones that benefited the most from the stability of the pound. Therefore, hotel occupancy is close to 70% in Greater Cairo. Egypt is one of the cheapest tourism destinations, as the average daily rate is $89.
What is the most attractive area for offices?
New Cairo is still the most attractive areas for administrative offices.
Is there an imminent real estate bubble?
There is no bubble because the developer always reacts to the market and always reads the market needs.
What is your opinion regarding the New Administrative Capital project?
The New Administrative Capital is the natural extension for New Cairo, as there is no availability of lands in the latter. Besides that, launching projects in El Mostakbal City, which is the area closest to the New Administrative Capital, and demand on AinSokhna revives the demand on the New Administrative Capital.
What are the areas most in demand for second homes?
North Coast is more in demand than AinSokhna because Sokhna still needs development and more services, so prices at North Coast are increasing.
In your opinion, what are possible incentives to attract other Arab and foreign investments to the sector?
Dollar value in the country is an incentive besides other factors, such as the facilities provided by the government to start businesses and how easy it is to transfer profits outside of the country. And of course risk assessment.
What is your expectation for the real estate sector?
We will see a revival in the hotel sector in Greater Cairo. Retail will be the last sector to return to its real growth percentage due to the current economic circumstances. The office market will keep stable and will then start growing again.
Medhat Stefanos, head of the cement production division at the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI) said that liberalising the exchange rate increased the exports of cement to one million tonnes in the first quarter (Q1) of 2017.
Stefanos added that cement plants aim to increase their production capacity to 84 million tonnes by 2020.
He expected that production capacity by the end of the year reaches 60 million tonnes.
At a press conference held by the division, Stephanos pointed out that the cement industry can export 10 million tonnes and aims to reach 30 million tonnes annually.
“There were no cement exports since 2009 until 2016 due to the consumption of 95% of production in the domestic market and cement exports during Q1 2017 are only 1 million tonnes, ” Stefanos said. “The exports of Q1 2017 went to Libya and Yemen, and the division seeks to participate in the reconstruction of Syria immediately after the end of political tensions.”
He pointed out that the cost of quarrying fees rose by 16% after the flotation of the pound.
Stefanos noted that the cement industry is innocent of the high prices of housing units and that cement only accounts for 3% of total construction costs.
Contracting companies submitted a petition to Prime Minister Sherif Ismail to intervene to save the Egyptian construction companies from layoffs and bankruptcy by issuing a cabinet decision to extend the duration of projects during 2016 for three months starting with the announcement of the Compensation Law in the official gazette.
Sahl Al Damrawi, a member of the association of businesspeople and of the union of building and construction, said that the demand is fair and right for companies as they have to bear all the negative impacts of the flotation of the pound and that they have to carry out and implement the construction works at double costs, which led to heavy losses.
He explained that many companies had to sell their properties to cover the expenses. This led to the bankruptcy of more than 2,000 companies and them dropping out of the construction market, as many of them fell victim to bankruptcy and many would be subjected to imprisonment as a result of their debts.
He added that this sector is the one that bore the heaviest burden in finishing most of the national projects, whether building large projects, like bridges, social housing, or healthcare buildings, or paving thousands of kilometres of roads.
He stressed that the real estate sector is the only one that has accomplished its mission in the past two years and all state agencies, the media, the Ministry of Housing, the cabinet, and the presideny are proud of the real estate sector’s achievements. The real estate sector did not stop its works or even threatened to stop its works like other economic and social sectors, so it would not be fair to sacrifice it.
He stressed that the Egyptian state needs to maintain this sector to complete national projects and for the implementation of the state’s development plan, reduce the unemployment rate, and transferring the contracting profession—as it can solve the economic crisis and will be a sustainable solution—while also injecting at least $50bn annually by exporting services of this sector to Arab and African countries.
He noted that the treasury of the state will only bear a small amount of the value of the compensation, and other parties such as unions, cooperatives, clubs, and banks will bear the rest of the amount.
The petroleum product subsidy bill exceeded EGP 110bn because of the high price of Brent oil of well over $40 per barrel, which was the estimated price in the budget, and the flotation of the pound.
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Wealth Tarek El Molla told Daily News Egypt that the fuel subsidy increased well above EGP 110bn, from an estimated EGP 35.04bn in the budget.
He added that the state continues to restructure the petroleum subsidy scheme to deliver support to its beneficiaries, next to increasing spending on education, health, and services provided to citizens.
“We cannot continue subsidising fuel this way,” El-Molla stressed. “This is costing the state much money and does not reach its intended beneficiaries.”
In the current fiscal year budget, the government has allocated EGP 35bn to subsidise fuel. The expected price of the dollar was EGP 9, compared to an actual exchange rate of EGP 17.95 per dollar now. The Brent price was also estimated at $40 per barrel, but the real price hiked to $49.43 on Saturday.
The Ministry of Petroleum asked the Ministry of Finance to approve additional allocations this year.
The petroleum minister said that 50% of the subsidy bill is spent on providing diesel fuel to the local market, because it is the most consumed in various sectors, while the government spends about 20% of the support for the provision of LPG and 20% for gasoline, plus 10% for the subsidies for fuel oil and other petroleum derivatives.
The average monthly consumption of petroleum products and natural gas in the local market ranges around 6.5 million tonnes. Local sources provide a sheer total of 4.20 million tonnes from different concession areas.
Egypt imports 2.3 million tonnes per month of petroleum products to feed the local market.
Egypt produces about 5 billion cubic feet of gas per day and 695,000 barrels of crude oil. The production is channelled to the local market. The Ministry of Petroleum obtains the share of foreign companies’ production of gas and oil, and provide about 30% of the local market needs through imports.
During the third annual CSR conference, held on 10 April, the Professional Development Foundation (PDF) signed a memorandum of understanding with Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the Bank of Alexandria to provide employment opportunities for 1,200 young women and men in rural areas, in addition to developing 40 NGOs in targeted areas, training 400 university students on leadership and entrepreneurship skills, and providing loans to start their projects.
Daily News Egypt interviewed Noura Selim, executive director at the SFSD, to talk about the developmental projects undertaken by the foundation.
What is the amount of money allocated for social projects in 2016 and 2017?
In 2016, we provided funding of approximately EGP 130m only for projects. We allocated about EGP 150m for projects in 2017. In our projects, we target breadwinner women and youth, and about 50-60% of the fund is allocated for women, with a concentration in Upper Egypt due to high poverty rates. In Cairo and Alexandria, we focus on projects related to slums and homeless children.
What is the size of loans provided by Sawiris Foundation?
It depends on the beneficiary. We provide grants and in-kind loans and trainings. We provide NGOs with funds for loans to be provided to beneficiaries as Sawiris Foundation doesn’t deal directly with the beneficiaries. The loan amounts range between EGP 1,000 and EGP 5,000 according to beneficiaries’ needs and NGOs capacities.
What is the ratio of loan repayment?
We can say that the ratio is 99-100% as we work with developmental organisations to handle the problems beneficiaries meet together with them. After the 25 January Revolution, there were some issues with some associations, but it was only a very small number of them. Therefore, we have very strict criteria to select the associations that our foundation grants loans to.
Has the foundation resorted to any judicial proceedings in case of non-payment of loans?
Sawiris Foundation has development goals to empower people; however, we didn’t have to resort to courts, as we didn’t have cases where people or associations refused to repay the loans.
Sawiris Foundation developed the Bedouin Village in Taba. Is the foundation looking to conduct similar projects with other villages?
In Taba, we built an integrated village with all services, with costs amounting to approximately EGP 40m. We built decent houses for citizens in Taba, a healthcare centre, a school, and playgrounds. It is the first village developed by Sawiris Foundation, but Orascom Development Holding provided services such as Harram City.
We planned to develop other villages on the same style. We keep on trying to provide job opportunities in all targeted areas besides developing schools and providing child-friendly community schools.
SFSD allocated $2.25m over 4 years, between 2013 and 2016, to ensure the most marginalised children receive a quality primary education. What is the target area and the number of schools?
We have 45 child-friendly community schools in Assiut, Sohag, and Qena in Upper Egypt. We are interested in Upper Egypt because there is a lack of schools, and children have to walk a long distance to reach the closest school, taking around 45 minutes on average.
What is the work plan for development projects and the amount of allocated money?
We allocated between EGP 100m and EGP 120m for projects in 2017. We reviewed our projects’ budget after the devaluation and flotation of the Egyptian pound. Most of the money was directed towards creating job opportunities and the rest towards to health and education services.
How many jobs were created by the foundation, and what is the target for the coming period?
So far, we created 250,000 job opportunities across Egyptian governorates. A year ago, we launched an initiative for two years to create 20,000 job opportunities for youth and women in Upper Egypt by the end of 2018.
What are the success stories in developmental projects provided by the foundation?
We are proud of our projects in the health and education sectors, and our foundation established a Technical Nursing Institute in El Gouna, Hurghada, in 2010. The institute is very important for the society as the graduates work in high-quality hospitals because they acquired all skills and qualifications needed in nursing, and Egypt suffers from a lack of these skills.
We plan to expand the Institute in El Gouna through increasing the number of students joining the institute every year.
We received offers from other agencies and universities that are interested in developing institutes like ours.
We are studying establishing other institutes in the style of El Gouna Technical Nursing Institute, but first we are keen on expanding the existing institute to reach 300 students annually through the National Coordination Office. Fresh high-school graduates from the scientific division who are nominated by the coordination office can join the institute.
Will Sawiris Foundation increase its budget in light of the currency devaluation and increases in poverty rates?
Sure, we will do. We have a strong support from the Sawiris family to support the community. We target increasing the budget by 20%.
The total volume of the foreign trade relations implemented by banks working in the Egyptian market during the period from 3 November 2016 until 10 April 2017 reached $28bn, according to Tarek Fayed, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).
Fayed said in a report issued on Sunday that banks have repaid the value of collection and credit documents previously opened—worth $19bn. They have also opened new credit documents for $9bn.
According to a previous report by the CBE, banks have opened documentary credits worth $6.34bn to import petroleum products alone during the period from January to December 2016.
Yahya Aboul Fotouh, the deputy head of the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), said in previous statements that the bank has allocated more than $7.5bn to cover the import demand from abroad since 3 November until April of this year, noting that at the same time, the bank was able to attract foreign exchange worth $6.5bn since the liberalisation of the exchange rate.
The CBE pointed out that the total foreign currency cash flow in the Egyptian banking sector reached $19.2bn since the flotation on 3 November until this month.
Mohamed Eletreby, chairperson of Banque Misr, said in a statement that banks’ total foreign exchange earnings include more than $14bn in transfers from Egyptians working abroad, and more than $4.5bn foreign investments in treasury bills and the Egyptian stock exchange.
