WATANI International
17 January 2010
The question of subsidy
The Ministry of Trade and Industry is considering tasking the Ministry of Social Solidarity with establishing and operating outlets to produce and sell bread at subsidised prices, while removing the subsidy on wheat. The government would buy the wheat and bread at market prices and then sell it to citizens at subsidised prices, Minister of Trade and Industry, Rashid Mohamed Rashid said.
20 per cent plunge
Revenue from the Suez Canal plunged 20 per cent in 2009 because of the global economic crisis, a Suez Canal Authority official said last Monday. Revenue reached USD4.28 billion in 2009, compared with USD5.38 billion in 2008. The canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea and is one of the world’s most heavily used shipping lanes, is Egypt’s third-largest source of revenue after tourism and remittances from expatriate workers. Traffic volume through the 163-kilometre canal is seen as an indicator of the state of health of maritime trade worldwide.
Growing Crops in Ethiopia
The National Bank of Egypt plans to invest at least USD40 million to grow “strategic” crops in Ethiopia for export to Egypt, said the bank’s Chairman Tarek Amer. The State-owned bank has asked Ethiopian authorities to allocate up to 20,000 hectares (49,420 acres) for the cultivation of the crops. The bank will also give six Ethiopian banks credit facilities worth EGP80 million (USD14.6 million) to fund foreign trade to countries including Egypt and other Nile basin countries.
Coastal protection
The UN Development Program (UNDP) has agreed to finance integrated management systems for coastal areas to cope with the climate change in the Nile Delta, Minister of Water Resources Nasreddin Allam said. The Global Environment Facility allocated USD4 million for the five-year project which aims to preserve Egyptian coasts by launching modern protection low-cost systems.
First gold factory
The first factory manufacturing gold in Egypt will be established in Jabal Al-Sokary, in the Eastern Desert, Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmy said, adding that the factory will officially open in February and will produce some 200,000 ounces of gold within a year, and 500,000 within two years.
Gold medal
The Russian University of Land and Planning has granted Tareq Hussein, Chairman of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, the Gold Medal of Merit for 2009. Dr Hussein won the medal in appreciation for his distinguished efforts in boosting bilateral scientific relations between Russian and Egyptian scientific institutions.
Ancient Egypt in Singapore
“Quest For Immortality: The World of Ancient Egypt”, which debuted in Singapore last December, will run till next April. The exhibition shows some 230 antiquities selected from the major Egyptian and Near Eastern collection of Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM). KHM curator Michaela Huettner said the exhibition was one of the biggest of Egyptian antiquities to have ever travelled, with the displays, some dating back as far as 4000 BC and including fragile mummies, providing an overview of the ancient culture. “Everybody thinks ancient Egypt was mummies, pyramids and Tutankhamun, but there was a daily life too, and that’s what we tried to show,” she said.
Coptic show
The Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT), affiliated to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its establishment. To honour the occasion, CULTNAT is putting on show at the BA’s Arts Hall images from the Coptic Heritage Documentation project. The show will run till 19 January.