WATANI International
23 August 2009
Remittances drop
The Central Bank of Egypt reported some 26 per cent decline in remittances for the first three months of the year. This is another drop in one of the country’s major foreign currency earners as the global economy contracts. The bank’s monthly bulletin revealed that remittances declined to USD1.7 billion in the third quarter of the 2008-2009 fiscal year from about USD2.3 billion in the previous quarter. Egypt’s other top sources of foreign currency are Suez Canal revenues and tourism, both of which dropped this year, the canal revenues dropping some 7 per cent.
Five million doses
Egypt is to order five million doses of swine flu vaccine once it is available, Deputy Health Minister Nasser al-Sayed has said, sufficient to immunise 2.5 million of the country’s nearly 80 million population. The order could go up to 10 million doses depending on the evolution of the (A)H1N1 virus over the winter, he said. Until last week Egypt had recorded 502 cases of swine flu. There was just one death—a woman returning from pilgrimage to the Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia.
Real estate tax
The new real estate law is now ready for implementation after Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali approved the real estate taxation statute earlier this month. The 22-item statute regulates the rental value of real estate units upon which the tax value will be determined. Ghali said the law exempts housing units with annual rental value less than EGP6,000. Exempted from tax are educational institutions, government, unions, political parties and youth centres.
Japan for the grassroots
Japanese aid has been working to make life easier for the grassroots in Egypt. The sum of USD45,769 was granted to the Coptic Hope Association for Care of Disabled Persons for a project to improve the association’s Mother and Child Care Clinic in Minya. A Medical Checkup Vehicle costing USD88,444 was donated to the Association against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases in North Sinai. The association is planning to use the medically-equipped vehicle for doctors to visit sites in Sinai and offer medical checkups to residents for whom health care is otherwise inaccessible. And in the east-of-Cairo randomly built neighbourhood of Ezbet al-Haggana, home to some one million residents, Japan is financing the erection of a water network to the tune of USD39,878. Also in North Sinai, Japan extended a grant of USD87,111 to the Society for Environment Protection for its Project for Improvement of Public Schools. Through its Assistance Scheme for Grassroots and Human Security Projects, Japan has since 1994 helped pupils all over Egypt by providing them with new desks and chairs.
In the agricultural sphere, Japanese grants amounting to some EGP63 million were used to fund the Modernisation of Agricultural Mechanisation Centre in Damanhur west of the Delta. The project allows farmers to use agricultural machines and provides them with the necessary technical training and after-sales services.
Humidity control
The tomb of Haremhab, in the Valley of the King’s on Luxor’s West Bank, has been reopened following the installation of state-of-the-art German-made humidity-control equipment. This is the first time technology is used in an attempt to reduce and control the humidity and heat inside tombs, which has long affected tomb wall paintings in the past and led to the closure of Haremhab’s tomb. It is planned that similar equipment would be installed in all the Valley of the Kings tombs if that in the Haremhab’s tomb proves effective.