Cairo: A senior official at Cadbury Egypt has denied that the company had recalled its products from the Egyptian market following reported news that Cadbury UK had withdrawn chocolate bars form the market in Britain and Ireland after traces of salmonella were found in product samples. An Egyptian daily newspaper has recently published reports that …

Cairo: Board members of the state-owned Misr Banque have earmarked Jan. 9, 2007 as the date for opening bid envelopes for ownership of 100 percent of the Misr Ameriya Company for Real Estate Investment. The company s is earmarked for sale under the government stake privatization scheme. Helmi al-Saeed, investment official at the Misr Banque, …

Average wages retreat; government continues to employ 24 percent of workforce despite reforms CAIRO: A new National Planning Institute (NPI) study shows the increase in public debt from 2001 to 2005 has been the main reason behind the increasing budget deficit, causing the government to have less money at its disposal for savings and investment. …

Two international calling operator’s licenses will be offered by the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) by the end of February, a Prime Minister’s Office statement issued last Sunday said. The statement represents the highest level of its kind and comes after a year of delays to the issuance of the licenses. Government officials and telecom …

The LE 750 million renovation of the Port of Alexandria will be revealed after Eid, Minister of Transportation Mohamed Mansour told the Shura Council Energy and Industrial Production Committee Wednesday. The port, originally scheduled for reopening in November, has faced several delays. Mansour did not offer a specific date for when the ceremony will to …

According to Al Masry Al Youm, Israel’s national airline El Al announced all flights to Cairo will be cancelled as of January 2007 due to high security costs and low demand on the route. The decision drew strong criticism from People’s Assembly members last week as many said it amounted to it a step back …

CAIRO: Egypt reopened on Thursday three ports on the Red Sea which had closed because of bad weather, an official from the Red Sea Port Authority said. At 6 am (0400 GMT), the Adabiya, Port Taufiq and Petroleum ports were reopened after wind speeds and waves subsided, said one official, who asked not to be …

Factory to produce 20 drills per year by 2012 CAIRO: A consortium of three Egyptian companies and China’s HH Corporation will begin the production of three oil drills in 2007 for local use and export, Minister of Petroleum (MOP) Sameh Fahmy and China’s Ambassador to Egypt Wu Sike announced Tuesday. The new venture will be …

CAIRO: A Central Accounting and Auditing Agency report released Monday shows the recently privatized Omar Effendi chain is owed more than LE 300 million by retail clients, public companies and government institutions. The report broke down the figure into LE 165 million owed to the company by retail clients, LE 49 million by public companies …

CAIRO: Egypt s median overnight interbank rate slipped to 9.75 percent on Wednesday from 9.772 percent on Tuesday as fewer banks bought certificates of deposits in auctions from the central bank, traders said. The rate is slightly lower today as many banks took part in the CD auctions yesterday, and are trying to square their …

CAIRO: Open source software and its specific application to internet-enabled telephony could make a powerful change for Egyptian businesses, asserted web telephony leader Mark Spencer at an OpenCraft technical seminar in Cairo. Founder and president of the American company Digium, Spencer has recently been deemed the most influential executive worldwide in the field of web-enabled …

CAIRO: Local retail investors who lost hope of a possible end-of-year rally dragged Egyptian shares more than 1 percent lower on Monday in the absence of foreign institutions that usually buy blue-chip stocks. It is pure negative sentiment, said Mohamed Radwan of Delta Securities. There were expectations of a rally by the end of the …

ISMAILIA: Egypt s revenue from the Suez Canal is expected to reach a record LE 21.7 billion ($3.8 billion) in 2006, up around 10 percent from last year, a Suez Canal Authority official said on Monday. Revenue was $3.457 billion in 2005, said the official, who asked not to be named. We also expect that …

116,000 commercial fraud lawsuits filed in 2005 CAIRO: The Food Industries Chamber (FIC) will comply with the new Consumer Protection Law despite the strong objections aired by FIC since implementation of the law began in November, FIC President Safwan Thabet said Sunday. “[FIC] will respect the law because we strongly believe in protecting the consumer, …

The Egyptian Export Development Bank is mulling over a proposal to increase its facilitated credit to exporters and to cut interest rates in order to encourage export-oriented industries, said the Bank chairman Hisham Hassan. He said that the bank has developed a plan to increase credit facilities for labor intensive industries that are mainly directed …

CAIRO: Egyptian share indexes were barely changed on Sunday after a day of quiet trade as foreign investors began their holidays and local and Arab investors adjusted their portfolios ahead of their own holiday period, traders said. It s quiet — all foreign institutions started their holidays on Saturday, and we will have (the Muslim …

ALEXANDRIA: The Chinese Hutchison Whampoa Limited Company has set off to construct two container terminals in the Alexandria and Al-Dekhaila seaports in Egypt with total investments of $100 million. Ibrahim Youssef, chairman of the Alexandria Port Authority said the combined capacity of the terminals would amount to 800,000 containers. This will increase the number of …

CAIRO: More than 1,500 workers at the Cement Tora Factory have been on strike since Wednesday Dec. 20. The workers’ sit-in has blocked the factory entrance, stopping trucks from loading cement packs out of it or supplying it with raw material. The workers are protesting not receiving payment incentives for six months. According to Al …

CAIRO: Egypt and Libya signed 18 agreements and protocols in a bid to strengthen bilateral ties in the fields of trade, tourism and education, the state-run Mena news agency reported Thursday. The agreements were signed after a session of the joint Egyptian-Libyan high committee by Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and his Libyan counterpart Baghdadi …

The Suez Steel Company is in the process of a final agreement on a capital increase to the limits of its authorized capital of LE 600 million. The company’s chairman Gamal Al-Garhy pointed to ongoing talks with an Arab investor with large experience in operating steel companies. He said Wednesday that Suez Steel would sell …

Part of plan to bring developing world up to speed OSSEEM, Egypt: On a brisk morning earlier this week, Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel Corporation, stood on a small stage dressed in a shiny pharaoh costume, where he was surrounded by a pack of torch-wielding school kids. While it was a strange to see a …

SME owners complain of “poor services CAIRO: More than 70 percent of public sector employees view the private sector as non-trustworthy, predatory and a beneficiary of government favoritism, while the same percentage of small and medium enterprise (SME) owners say they suffer government neglect and complicated procedures impeding their businesses, a study released Tuesday by …

CAIRO: Acer Computer Middle East has announced that from January 2007 there will be a new country manager overseeing operations in Egypt, KSA and the East Africa region. Having registered 84.8 percent year on year growth in notebook sales in Egypt for Q3 2006, Acer has been steadily consolidating its number three position in the …

British Petroleum plans to invest as much as $5 billion in the Egyptian oil industry over the next five year, increasing the total value of the company’s investments in Egypt to $20 billion. The British company’s plan was disclosed by Hisham Mekkawy, the general manager of BP in Egypt, during a meeting of the energy …

CAIRO: Despite the continuous stream of government reports of a historic resurgence in the country’s economy, some prominent economists are sounding alarm bells over the ongoing increase in overall public debt. Gawdat El Malt, chairman of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (Capmas), directed sharp criticism Monday to the People’s Assembly Planning and …

CAIRO: The median overnight interbank rate on the Egyptian pound jumped to 9.8 percent on Tuesday from 9.443 percent on Monday, with central bank auctions of certificates of deposit draining market liquidity, traders said. The market is short today after banks put their funds into the one-week and 128-day certificates of deposit auctions, so there …

Analyst views decision with guarded optimism CAIRO: The Central Bank (CB) has raised overnight deposit and lending interest rates by 0.25 percent to 8.75 and 10.75, respectively, CB Deputy Governor Tarek Amer announced in a press statement following Thursday evening s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. The decision came just days before the formal announcement …

LE 20 billion sewage infrastructure project put on hold CAIRO: The Ministry of Investment (MOI) and Central Bank (CB) said Sunday the government has begun the second phase of settling public company debt. The entire phase, amounting to LE 9.2 billion, is set to be completed in a few months as proceeds from the October …

Factory production to meet almost 20 percent of local demand of soda-ash CAIRO: China National Chemical Engineering Corporation (CNCEC) and The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) announced Monday a new partnership to build a soda-ash factory in Fayoum. The chemical is primarily used in glass manufacturing. The memorandum of understanding (MOU), signed Sunday, says the …

CAIRO: The Egyptian government could cut its budget deficit faster without compromising economic growth, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday. In a statement issued in Cairo after an IMF visit, the fund also said recent Central Bank of Egypt decisions to raise interest rates were timely and appropriate. Some of the factors behind the …