WATANI International
28 August 2011
The Ministry of Justice last week announced it was forming a fact-finding commission to investigate the foreign funds received in aid by Egyptian NGOs. The issue of US and European foreign funding, especially for the purpose of spreading political awareness and democracy, recently came under fire in Egypt on grounds that it was offered by the donors with a view to maintaining control over events in Egypt.
Egyptian relief Somalia
The Egyptian Misr el-Kheir Charity Foundation, chaired by the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, in coordination with the Foreign Ministry and the Arab League, is sending 40,000 bagfulls of food supplies to Somali families threatened with starvation.
Legalising the unregistered
Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade, Mahmoud Eissa, said that unregistered factories which operate outside the official industrial sector will be dealt with through the application of new mechanisms to legalise their status and integrate them into the official economic sector. These industries, he said, cannot be disregarded, since they include more than 750,000 workers as well as significant investment.
German loan
Germany’s reconstruction credit institute has approved a USD25 million loan for Egypt to complete the first stage of the integrated water resources management project which aims at improving irrigation and sanitation systems. The project, to be carried out by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, covers an area of 550,000 feddans in governorates which suffer shortage in irrigation water.
More gas reserves
The Petroleum Ministry is planning the drilling of 36 oil wells, 11 of which lie in the Mediterranean waters, 22 in the Nile Delta, and three in North Sinai. This is expected to provide 8.3 trillion cubic feet of gas and 105 million barrels of condensates and five billion barrels of oil reserves.
The new Hanging Church
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf will be opening within a few days the Hanging Church in Old Cairo after the completion of renovation works which took some three years and cost some EGP105 million. The Hanging Church was built over the ramparts of the Roman Babylion Fort, hence its name—as early as the 3rd or 4th century, but has seen several renovations or rebuilding processes during its history. The most famous of these were done during the times of Pope Isaac in the 7th century and Pope Abraham in the 10th century. It was the seat of the Coptic patriarchs during the years 1047 – 1320.