No easy business
World Bank affiliate, the International Finance Corporation said Egypt was the world’s top reformer of business regulations last year and was again one of the world’s top 10 reformers this year. But the country ranked 114th globally in terms of ease of doing business.
30 wells
Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and its Tanzanian counterpart have signed an agreement whereby Egypt will extend a $1 million grant to dig 30 water wells in Tanzania. Cairo will offer technical assistance and organise training programmes for Tanzanian cadres, while Egyptian experts will visit Tanzania shortly to survey the regions of Kilimanjaro and Lake Manyara where the wells will be dug.
Iraqi wetlands
Under the auspices of UNESCO, Egypt’s regional centre for water studies will implement a project in Iraq to maintain inland water areas, an invaluable source of livelihood for fishermen and those working in animal husbandry. The project is funded jointly by Egypt and Italy, and aims at maintaining wetlands used as stations by migratory birds from Europe in winter. It includes studies on the interface between groundwater and surface water, water conservation, water pollution and waste water. Iraqis will be trained in Egypt in the integrated management of water resources and environmental conservation.
Till next year
The National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) has postponed the auction for the second fixed-line network, which was announced earlier this year, for one year. A NTRA spokesman said it made the decision after consulting the companies that had expressed interest in bidding for the licence. Last July the NTRA had postponed the bid deadline for the license for a second time to 18 September from 29 July, citing turbulent global markets and continuing talks about interconnectivity agreements.
OCI in Abu Dhabi
Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt’s largest builder by market value, has won a $150 million contract in Abu Dhabi as part of a joint venture. The contract, which includes partner Sorouh Real Estate, is for piling, foundation, dewatering, and excavation works on Abu Dhabi’s al-Reem Island and should be completed within 14 months.
Going to Rome
Following five weeks in Madrid, Egypt’s sunken antiquities exhibition is moving to Rome. This is the first time Egyptian antiquities are exhibited outside Egypt, Culture Minister Farouq Hosni said. The exhibition, which displays 489 pieces of antiquities discovered underwater off Alexandria is expected to bring in some 900,000 Euros to Egypt.
3,000 years old
At Tell Basta, some 80 kilometers northeast of Cairo, archaeologists have unearthed a 3,000-year-old red granite head believed to depict the 19th Dynasty Pharaoh Ramses II. The Supreme Council of Antiquities said the 30-inch-high head belonged to a colossal statue of Ramses II that once stood in the area. Its nose is broken and the beard that was once attached to the king’s chin is missing. The site at Tell Basta was dedicated to the cat-goddess Bastet and was an important center from the Old Kingdom until the end of the Roman Period. Archaeologists are still digging at the location for the rest of the statue.
Egypt fashion in Paris
With her sights on the European market, Egypt’s Marie Bishara, creative director of the Bishara label, which is well-established in the Middle East, will be showing for the first time in the Paris ready-to-wear collections for next summer. For her debut outside Egypt, she will be showing “a more European collection, not at all ethnic,” a spokeswoman said. The label, founded in the 1960s, employs 1,500 people. According to the organisers of fashion week, the French Fashion Federation, she will be the first designer from Egypt to show on the Paris catwalks.
