WATANI International
19 September 2010
Egypt goes nuclear
Several meetings have been held at different levels between Egypt and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) within the framework of developing peaceful uses of nuclear energy, in full support of the IAEA to Egypt’s nuclear programme. Energy Minister Hassan Younis is heading Egypt’s delegation to the General Assembly of the IAEA in Vienna today.
Ghali on pension reform
Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali has been invited to an annual World Bank conference to be held in Washington next October in which he will present a review of the social insurance and pension reform in Egypt. The World Bank is interested in Egypt’s experiment in this field and is seeking to apply it in Iraq, Mohamed Ahmed Moeet, an aide to the finance minister, said. A delegation of Iraq’s national council for pensions and World Bank experts are visiting Egypt this month to get firsthand information about pension reform.
Customs forum
The Egyptian Finance Ministry is organising the second Technology and Innovation Forum of World Customs Organisation (WCO) in Cairo next November. Delegations from 185 countries will be taking part. The forum will discuss issues concerned with customs, international trade, and exchange of information on trade movements. Last year’s forum was held in Brussels.
Contemporary slavery
The Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement is preparing to host the International Forum against Human Trafficking in Luxor next December. The forum comes in response to the UN protocol on human trafficking, and aims at outlining its dimensions as ‘contemporary slavery’. The role of the law, media, youth and tourism in resisting the illegal trade will be highlighted and discussed.
Sailing to Turkey
The first regular navigation line between Egyptian and Turkish ports will be in operation next November. According to Trade and Industry Minister Rasheed Mohamed Rasheed, the line is expected to raise the volume of trade between the two countries by 15 per cent.
Opera Cairo New York
For the first time in Egypt and the Middle East, performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York will be aired live at the Cairo Opera House beginning 9 October and through till the end of May 2011. A recent protocol signed by the Cairo Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera gives Egypt the exclusive right to air 12 live performances at the Metropolitan via satellite.
Nubian reopened
Following two weeks of closure for renovation, the Nubian Museum in Aswan re-opened to visitors earlier this month. The secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawwas said the museum’s security cameras and alarms were all repaired and in good working order. The move to repair the security system came in the wake of the theft of Van Gogh’s Poppy Flowers from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Giza last month, upon which it was divulged that none of the museum’s alarms and only seven of 43 surveillance cameras were working at the time of the robbery. Most Egyptian museums have been closed to upgrade their security systems.