CAIRO: The financial advisor for the sale of Banque Du Caire will be announced by the end of this month, said Mohamed Barakat, head of Banque Misr. He also announced the formation of a committee to follow up on the sale of the bank’s shares. The committee has recently short-listed five financial institutions out of …

CAIRO: Bavarian Auto Group organized the 11th BMW Golf Tournament in Egypt with the participation of 190 players. A part of the BMW International Golf Cup, the BMW Golf Tournament in Egypt has become an exciting event, eagerly awaited by Golf lovers from year to year. Bavarian Auto Group – BMW, MINI and Rolls Royce …

CAIRO: Shares in Orascom Telecom and cement firms lifted the Egyptian bourse last week, with the Case30 Index gaining 1.33 percent to close at around 8,284 points. Orascom Telecom (OT) inched up 1.1 percent to close at LE 69.52 per share with a turnover of LE 14.14 million. The company announced it was planning a …

CAIRO: When asked if there is light at the end of the tunnel, His Royal Highness (HRH) Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan replied, “Where is the tunnel? “According to World Bank figures, per capita income in the Middle East and North Africa Region has declined by 25 percent. The oil boom is a …

CAIRO: Mainly triggered by a growing economy and a recent depreciation in the value of the dollar, Egypt s inflation rate rose 8.5 percent in the year to August, up from 8 percent in July, above government as well as market expectations. “According to state figures, inflation declined three months in a row beginning last …

CAIRO: In an effort to integrate engineering with economy, the annual student conference Engineering Yields Economy (EYE) brought engineering, economics and commerce students together to develop business plans for innovative projects. In the closing ceremony on Tuesday, students from the faculties of engineering and commerce at Ain Shams University presented their projects and explained their …

CAIRO: Recent findings reveal that 55 percent of Egyptians have started to rely on visual and electronic sources of news, as opposed to print media. The United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) has developed a project that attempts to revive domestic print media and make it more accessible to readers. Peering into the future …

DUBAI: Orascom Telecom Holding unveiled a new bilingual search engine that is set to change the way internet users look for Arab-related content. With the growing amount and interest in Arabic content on the web and the increasing number of users, the new search engine ‘Onkosh’ was developed to address the needs of the Arab …

CAIRO: Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garanah stated during a meeting with the Oxford Business Group earlier this week that the total number of tourists visiting Egypt reached a staggering 9.1 million in 2006. “There are 183,000 rooms [in Egypt], plus more than 130,000 rooms under construction, he added. Chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Authority Amr …

CAIRO: Dar Al-Fouad Hospital signed a contract with Allied Information Technology Services (AITS)-Allied Soft to help the hospital go online and digitize its medical transcription and billing services. Dar Al-Fouad, General Manager Dr Hisham El-Kholy and Allied Soft Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Reda signed the contract at the hospital s premises in Sixth of October …

CAIRO: The Middle East and North Africa Health Policy Forum (Mena HPF) opened on Sunday its first conference on the development and restructure of health policy in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). The forum entitled “Better Policies for Better Health aims to address the most pressing health challenges facing the Mena region …

CAIRO: Egypt-Ukraine trade exchange increased to $500 million from January to July 2007, said Yevhen Mykytenko, the Ukrainian Ambassador in Cairo. Egypt s exports to Ukraine – mainly rice, fruit, processed food, medicine, ceramics and plastics – rose by about 50 percent to reach $83 million, he said. Meanwhile, Egypt s imports from Ukraine rose …

CAIRO: “Do not forget the poor, was the message at the heart of Minister of Trade Rachid Mohamed Rachid’s keynote address on the last day of the Euromoney Egypt Conference Wednesday. At the end of two days of talks about a successful year for the economy and the challenges facing Egypt’s continued development, Rachid’s speech …

CAIRO: Italy agreed to grant LE 100 million to the Egyptian-Italian Technology Cooperation Fund as well as train 250,000 Egyptian workers in the fields of leather, foodstuffs, textiles, engineering, furniture and marble. Additionally, a 50 million euro contribution to finance small and medium-sized businesses was given the final go-ahead. These developments were a result of …

CAIRO: A UN report has warned against the plethora of trade agreements between developed and developing countries which could prove a hindrance to third world development goals. The 2007 Trade and Development Report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) stated that bilateral agreements, rather than multilateral ones that would abide …

CAIRO: During the advertising festival week in Cannes, ACT Responsible (Advertising Community Together) gathered over 400 advertising campaigns revolving around social and environmental issues in a competition to choose the most effective message. The best campaigns in each category received a special Cannes Dove Tribute from: Mayor of Cannes Bernard Brochand; Hervé de Clerck, AdForum.com …

CAIRO: Sustaining higher growth rates, tackling unemployment, and combating poverty are just some of the issues Egypt needs to tackle before it can successfully foray Into the Second Wave. “The economy looks very strong, and the process of reform over the past four years [has been] very well handled, said Richard Ensor, managing director of …

CAIRO: While Egypt may have abundant local talent and a large labor force, the problems and shortcomings of the public education system need to be addressed in order to create a future generation of leaders. During a workshop entitled “Management 2.0: The next generation of corporate leaders, sponsored by Vodafone at the Euromoney Egypt Conference …

CAIRO: The energy and IT sectors continue to move ahead and encourage foreign direct investment in Egypt, contributing to the nation’s overall growth, said ministers of the sectors at the second day of the Euromoney Egypt Conference 2007. “One of the most dynamic sectors of the economy, comprising 9-10 percent of the overall Gross Domestic …

CAIRO: “Growth has been our target, and the steps taken by the government since 2004 have created an environment that attracts investment, said Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif during the closing speech at the Euromoney Egypt Conference Wednesday. Nazif lauded the efforts of his Cabinet, which helped bring Egypt’s real GDP growth rate to 7.2 percent …

CAIRO: Fears of a real estate bubble bursting were slightly mollified when veteran real estate financiers and developers agreed that they envisioned an additional increase in prices. “I’m afraid to say that I see an increase in prices over the next three to four months because we are hearing about rises in the price of …

CAIRO: Hot on the heels of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), Egypt’s banking environment has moved from a below par sector with around 60 weak banks to a thriving one with 35 stronger banks. Less than three years ago, Egypt had quite a weak banking sector with [numerous] banks [overburdened] with non-performing loans, said Adrien Phares, …

CAIRO: There is a pressing need to spread awareness and educate Egyptian bank users, who have a lot of “distrust towards remote communication, said Mansour Guneidy, chairman of Market Insight during a panel discussion at the Euromoney Egypt conference Tuesday. “People are very hesitant about using anything which has to do with telephone banking or …

CAIRO: A stable economy and a sound political regime have contributed to Egypt’s role as a regional hub for Gulf investors in the Middle East and North Africa. In a workshop entitled “Egyptian Gulf Investment, sponsored by Ahli United Bank Egypt, associates explained that the bank’s role is to encourage Gulf investments by materializing their …

CAIRO: Private equity in Egypt has taken on the task of investing in growing local companies through acquisitions, consolidations, greenfield sites and turnarounds, in hopes of making them regional leaders. ASCOM Mining and ASEC Holding in Cement were two case studies discussed by the panel entitled “Private Equity: Creating industrial leaders through acquisitions and turnarounds, …

CAIRO: The Egyptian government will reduce the real estate tax significantly, announced Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali at the Euromoney Egypt Conference Tuesday. “The current real estate tax of about 46 percent is not a sensible number, we aim to reduce it to around 10 percent, Ghali said. Segments of the population, such as …

CAIRO: With an increasing number of development projects – both in residential and retail sectors – skeptical views claim the current real estate boom is only a bubble and fear that it may soon burst. “The real estate market is booming like it has never boomed before, and a lot of people are questioning whether …

CAIRO: For the average citizen to feel confident and optimistic about Egypt’s economic progress, it will require empowering those who lack proper skills and training in the labor market, said Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin in his opening speech at the Euromoney Egypt Conference Tuesday. Government officials boast about Egypt s unprecedented growth rates – …

CAIRO: “Egypt has never had it so good, said Richard Ensor in his opening speech at the Euromoney Egypt 2007 conference Tuesday. Esnor, managing director of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, inaugurated the conference by quoting Harold Macmillan, former UK prime minister, to highlight the success Egypt’s economy has witnessed over the past year. With a …

CAIRO: With foreign direct investments (FDI) surging to $11.1 billion during the fiscal year 2006/07 – up 81.7 percent from the previous year – the country must be doing something right in terms of investment. Investment has improved a great deal over the past five years due to a number of reasons, said Simon Kitchen, …