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football fever hits the nile

the 25th african cup of nations (acn) opened in egypt on january 20, bringing the nation to a standstill as spectators poured into cairo international stadium for the opening match between egypt and libya, which ended with a 3-0 victory for the home team. sixteen african teams are playing in the three-week football tournament, which will end with the awarding of the african cup to the winner on february 10.

violence that erupted during a 0-0 tie between egypt and morocco on january 24 appeared to be caused by libyan fans who remained in the crowd of 74,000 at cairo stadium following their defeat in an earlier game. riot police forced the libyan fans from the stadium after scuffles emerged with egyptian fans. the confederation of african football disciplinary commission later slapped the egyptian football federation and its libyan counterpart with fines of $5,000 and $7,000 respectively.
egypt’s final tab for hosting the prestigious event is expected to top £e 800 million, including £e 150 million for the extensive renovation of cairo international stadium. five other stadiums underwent lesser renovations.

french ex-warship cleared for canal

a decommissioned french warship, clemenceau, bound for a ship-breaking yard in india was cleared for passage through the suez canal after a delay due to potentially hazardous materials on board. the warship was prevented from entering the canal after fears were raised that the carcinogenic asbestos used to make the ship seaworthy would leak into egyptian waters. the egyptian environmental affairs agency (eeaa) had demanded that france provide documentation that the ship was not in violation of the 1989 basel convention.

upon receiving this documentation, the egyptian authorities determined there was no environmental threat and allowed the 27,000-ton ship to transit the canal after a routine technical check.

fta future uncertain

egypt-us free trade agreement (fta) negotiations may be on shaky ground, a visiting us congressional staffer said. the staffer, who asked not to be named, indicated that egypt must begin serious fta negotiations with the us within a month or else it might have to wait four years for another opportunity. he said the fta had been “taken off course” by events not directly related.

in 2005, us officials indicated that they expected fta talks to begin in early 2006. the staffer, however, suggested that the bush administration may consider halting negotiations altogether in protest for what has been seen as limited political liberalization following the outbreak of violence during last year’s parliamentary elections, where eight people were killed in election-related violence.

making matters worse, he said, was the imprisonment of opposition leader ayman nour. on december 24, 2005, the al ghad party leader was convicted of forging signatures on his nominating papers, and sentenced to five years in prison. he claims the charges were designed to end his political career, an assessment that washington seems to share. washington had announced its willingness to consider an fta with egypt, but has said its decision to grant one will depend, in part, on egypt’s track record of economic and political reform.

calyon to purchase eab

france’s calyon bank, the banking and investment arm of credit agricole sa, will buy egyptian american bank (eab) for £e 2.9 billion after winning the approval of egypt’s ministry of investment and shareholders. credit agricole sa offered £e 45 per share for eab, beating out britain’s hsbc, but traders were disappointed by the share price offered, which was below the market price of about £e 61 to 65 per share. a statement from the ministry said the price was set at £e 45 per share after a £e 5 per share reduction so the buyer could meet a commitment to cover a gap in the employees’ insurance fund, which totaled approximately £e 324 million.

eab, which is 40.8 percent owned by american express bank and 33.8 percent owned by state-owned bank of alexandria, saw its share-price fall 16.8 percent following the announcement.

cheney pops in

us vice president dick cheney was in cairo last month for talks with president hosni mubarak about regional developments and bilateral relations. the talks reportedly covered lebanon, syria, iraq, iran and the israeli-palestinian conflict. cheney’s visit was the resumption of a middle east tour begun last december but cut short to deal with domestic matters.

rafah border erupts in violence

egypt arrested and charged more than 60 palestinians for illegally entering the country after riots broke out when gunmen associated with al aqsa martyrs’ brigades broke through a border wall on january 3 using stolen tractors. as many as 300 civilians streamed across the egyptian-palestinian border into egypt.

two egyptian troops were killed during confrontations with the armed gunmen, who left the area after the palestinian authority (pa) deployed about 300 police officers on late january 4. egyptian foreign ministry officials strongly condemned the actions of the gunmen and appealed to the pa to ensure that the situation is not repeated.

egypt, israel and the palestinian authority reached an agreement in 2005 to open the rafah crossing on the egyptian-palestinian border for the first time in four decades. the european union agreed to send troops to monitor the crossing to ensure that terrorists and restricted substances do not make their way into palestinian territories through the crossing.

chicken deaths spark bird flu rumors

fears that the deadly bird flu virus had landed in egypt were raised after the sudden death of 1,000 chickens on a farm in sharqiya governorate in late january. inspectors from the ministries of health and agriculture tested the dead birds for the h5n1 virus, but the lab results came back negative. instead, ministry officials attributed the mysterious deaths to unusually high ammonia levels in their feed, which poisoned the chickens.

it is estimated that tens of millions of birds have been slaughtered worldwide in efforts to prevent the spread of the h5n1 bird flu virus. to date, no cases have been confirmed in egypt.

israel eyes sinai land

israeli officials claimed the egyptian ministry of agriculture turned down a request by the israeli government to rent agricultural land in sinai to plant crops for export to europe. the officials stated that they needed to rent 100,000 acres in sinai to plant crops for export.

in early january, israel’s minister of agriculture said he requested that 200 egyptian farmers replace thai farmers on netanya’s tomato farms because egyptian labor costs are much cheaper.

egypt’s minister of agriculture, amin abaza, responded to press reports of the requests, stating that he is unaware of any such requests being made by israel and that he has not received any official statements from his counterpart in tel aviv.

bank commotion

the sale of bank of alexandria’s shares in egyptian american bank (eab) has caused an uproar in the people’s assembly. mohamed khalil, a deputy for the ruling national democratic party (ndp), and mostafa bakri, an independent mp, accused the central bank of egypt (cbe) of approving the sale of shares at a relatively cheap price. the price per share was set at £e 45, although eab shares were trading on the cairo & alexandria stock exchanges (case) for £e 56.

bakri argued that the entire sale should be considered unconstitutional because mohamed mansour and ahmed el maghraby, the ministers of transport and housing respectively, own 23 percent of calyon egypt, the bank acquiring eab. bakri added that article 158 of the constitution states that during their term in office, cabinet ministers shall not buy or rent any state property. while mansour and el maghraby founded the company that owns shares in calyon, they resigned their posts in the company once joining the cabinet, as also required by article 158.

case leads arab stock markets

cairo & alexandria stock exchanges (case) surged ahead of all similar arab stock markets in 2005, case chairman maged shawky announced. he said the egyptian stock exchange reached record levels in 2005, increasing by 146 percent on top of its 136-percent rise in 2003 and 122 percent in 2004.
mortgage finance company to be established

a new mortgage finance company will be established in egypt by mid-2006. minister of finance mahmoud mohieldin made the announcement following a meeting with financial institutions and regulatory bodies. the company’s sole function would be to provide refinancing to the real estate industry as a means to develop and aid the growth of the sector. mohieldin stated that a number of procedures and regulations to launch the refinancing of the real estate industry will be implemented this year.

mortgage law 148/2001 came into effect in 2004, but has so far proven difficult to implement, in part because banks are prohibited from becoming directly involved in mortgage lending. only specialized real estate financing companies can offer mortgages.

hamza retrial begins

the retrial of egyptian architect mamdouh hamza, accused of the involvement in assassination plots against high-ranking egyptian government officials, started on january 13 in london. a judge at the central criminal court ordered the retrial in december after a jury failed to agree on a verdict.
hamza, who was arrested on july 12, 2004 after entering the uk to attend a reception in buckingham palace, was charged with soliciting the help of a hit man to assassinate four egyptian officials, including former housing minister mohamed ibrahim soliman, ex-minister of state for people’s assembly affairs kamal el shazli, presidential chief of staff zakaria azmi and parliament speaker fathi sorour. while prosecutors claim that they have enough evidence to convict hamza of soliciting murder, his defense team is confident that he is innocent.

oasis grabs stake in shamsi

the private equity fund oasis capital egypt has acquired a majority stake in the textile manufacturer and retailer shamsi group for £e 193 million. according to the company’s ceo, ali al dajani, around £e 150 million of the transaction total will be used to purchase shamsi’s debt from banque du caire at a discount. the remaining balance will fund shamsi’s ongoing working capital expenditure.

orascom and club med strike property deal

orascom hotel & development (ohd) reached an agreement with france’s club mediterranée in mid-january to develop real estate around club med holiday resorts worldwide. according to the agreement, ohd will own a 75-percent stake in the joint venture firm while club med would own the remaining 25 percent. the initial plan is to develop at least 50 villas on about 120,000 square meters of land next to a five-star club med resort in mauritius.

bus crash kills six

investigators said that the driver of a bus that overturned on the cairo-alexandria desert road on january 11, killing six australians and injuring 25 others on board, swerved to avoid an obstacle on the road. it is believed that poor road conditions due to rain were a major factor in the accident.

plan to provide homes with natural gas

the egyptian government will implement a six-year strategy to accelerate the installation of natural gas to 6 million homes throughout the country in cooperation with italy. according to the schedule, one million houses will be added to the natural gas network each year. the program will cost £e 30 billion. under the previous strategy, the same number of homes was to be added over a 15-year span. the same plan also includes a program to transform all government vehicles to use natural gas instead of petrol.

sudanese protestors removed

egyptian police used water cannons on december 30, 2005 to forcibly remove thousands of sudanese protestors camped in cairo’s mohandiseen district near the un high commissioner for refugees (unhcr) office. the refugees staged the illegal sit-in, which lasted for almost three months, in a bid to pressure the unhcr to provide them with refugee status, which would make them eligible for relocation to the us, canada or europe. the refugees said they were unwilling to return to sudan and did not wish to remain in egypt.

according to egyptian authorities, the process of moving the sudanese resulted in the death of 27 of them and the injury of more than 60 egyptian policemen. interior ministry officials blamed the deaths on a stampede and accused migrant leaders of inciting attacks against the police. humanitarian groups, however, blamed the deaths on a heavy-handed assault by riot police.

the government had initially stated that all sudanese without official refugee status or legal entry visas would be deported to sudan, but later said it would not expel them.

fdi tops $2.6 billion

egypt received approximately $2.6 billion in foreign direct investment (fdi) during 2005, according to a report by minister of investment mahmoud mohieldin. the report indicated that investments in the oil sector increased by 11 percent, totaling $920 million, while investments in non-oil sectors grew to $1.65 million from $249 million in 2004. new investments in all sectors were valued at $1.2 billion and the government’s revitalized privatization program brought in $400 million from the sale of state-owned assets.

oci bags sack maker

orascom construction industries has completed the acquisition of egypt sack company for £e 43 million. egypt sack owns and operates a cement bag manufacturing plant in sixth of october city with an annual production capacity of up to 60 million cement bags. with the completion of this acquisition, and with a plant in egypt and another in algeria, oci now has a combined manufacturing capacity of around 300 million cement bags per year.

consumer confidence up

the masterindex of consumer confidence survey for the second half of 2005 indicates improved consumer confidence among egyptians and an increasingly optimistic outlook. the bi-annual survey, commissioned by mastercard international, analyzes consumers’ perceptions in five key variables: economic performance, employment levels, regular income, capital markets and quality of life. egyptian consumers scored 62.3 points, a considerable improvement since last year’s survey, which scored 37.0 out of a possible 100 points.

industry shows growth

minister of trade and industry rachid mohamed rachid announced that egyptian industry is capable of competing with its international counterparts. he said the industrial growth rate increased by 5 percent in 2005, with £e 11 million in new investments. the minister attributed 110,000 new jobs to this growth, adding that 800 new factories were established.

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