National Projects

Inauguration a number of national projects:

Development projects in Dameitta

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Tuesday 23/5/2017 inaugurated several major national projects in the industry and health domains in Damietta Governorate. They included Damietta Military Hospital, Damietta Furniture city, emergency hospital in Kafr Saad and the first phase of Dar Misr” middle-class housing project.

West Delta Natural Gas fields

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi witnessed on Wednesday 10/5/2017 via video conference a ceremony marking the start of natural gas production at northern Alexandria gas fields.

Moreover, President Sisi directed officials to expedite work in order to start the second phase before 2019.

The natural gas production includes 5 offshore fields in northern Alexandria and two agreements; the Northern Alexandria Agreement and the Western Mediterranean Agreement.

Development projects in Upper Egypt

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi inaugurated on 14/5/2017 a number of development projects in Upper Egypt including reclamation of 21.000 feddans in el Farafra in New Valley Governorate, Aswan Railway Station and 4 new bridges in Tahta, Naga Hamadi, Luxor and Aswan.

Assuit Power Station

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi inaugurated the new 1,000 megawatt Assiut Power Station and a number of projects in Assiut via video conference.

The first phase of the energy-generating project is expected to generate with the capacity of 1,000 MW. The second phase is still under construction and is planned to generate with the capacity of 500 MW.

New Assuit Barrage

On President Sisi’s visit to Assiut, the president inspected the New Assiut barrage project and the hydroelectric station. The Project is aimed at improving irrigation in five governorates (Assuit, Minya, Beni Suief, Fayyoum and Giza).

New Ismailia City

In a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the first anniversary of inauguration of the ‪new Suez Canal, the president toured New Ismailia City and inaugurated Al Fayrouz Community Club.

The first phase of the housing project in the new Ismailia City aims at building 35.000 flats while the second phase includes 57,000 housing units

Part 2

CBE floats Egyptian pound

With the aim of achieving monetary stability and reaching a low inflation rate, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided on Thursday 3rd of November 2016 to take a number of measures, including shifting from a fixed exchange rate system to a floating exchange rate system.

As per the decision, all banks operating in Egypt will be able to set the exchange rate of foreign currencies to end trading outside the official market

The bank decided to cut down the value of the Egyptian pound by 48 percent to stand at EGP 13 for the US dollar in the official market with a 10 percent margin of fluctuation.

The CBE decision means that the Egyptian pound value will be primarily decided by the forces of supply and demand.

Among the other measures, the bank decided to increase interest rate on the overnight deposit rate, overnight lending rate, and the rate of the CBE's main operation and credit rate by 300 bps to 14.75 percent, 15.75 percent, 15.25 percent and 15.25 percent respectively.

The bank stressed that no restrictions will be enforced on cash deposits or withdrawals either for individuals or companies.

But the earlier daily limit of 50,000- US dollar deposits and 30,000-US dollar withdrawals is still enforce for companies importing non-basic commodities.

Investment stimulation procedures

Ratification of the investment law

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi ratified on Thursday 1/6/2017 the investment law, after it was passed by the House of Representatives.

The new law covers both domestic and foreign investments.

The new law is expected to boost investments and provide more incentives to investors looking to put money in Egypt.

Supreme Council for Investment

In a plain positive message to all Egyptians, Arabs and foreign investors inside and outside Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a presidential decree No. 478 for 2016 stipulating the establishment of the "Supreme Council for Investment" under his chairmanship.

This decree comes at the proper time to emphasize that investment is the state's top priority, and that it would reach new vistas during the coming period.

Having this council chaired by the president, is a sign that Egypt is fully aware of the importance of investment and actively seeks to eliminate the bureaucracy which resulted in a sapped investment.

Objectives:

- Improving investment atmosphere, boosting the capacity of the national economy to attract investment.

- reviewing the state investment policies.

- Identifying activities and projects as priorities in terms of the various specialized sectors and geographical areas.

- Reviewing Egypt's rank in international reports for business and competitiveness.

- Follow-up of mechanisms of settling investment disputes.

- Setting a framework for investment legislative and administrative reform and removing all obstacles facing investors.

- Achieving a sustainable development within the framework of the state economic development plan.

Council members:

- President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (chairman)

- Prime Minister

- Governor of the Central Bank

- Defense Minister

- Minister of Military Production

- Minister of Finance

- Minister of Investment

- Interior Minister

- Minister of Justice

- Minister of Trade and Industry

- President of the General Intelligence Service

- President of the Administrative Control Authority

- Chief Executive of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones

- President of the Federation of Egyptian Industries

- President of the Federation of investors associations

National Council for Payments

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Tuesday 14/2/2017 issued decree No. 89 for 2017 to establish the national council for payments.