Search Results for: Egyptian

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Kuwait City

KUWAIT is set to follow Dubai by banning smoking in public places, a move that is expected to further hit local struggling non-premium tobacco distributors, who are still reeling from a hike in duty and advertising bans imposed five years ago.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PHILIP Morris International (PMI) has released a detailed intelligence dossier on cigarette and other tobacco product counterfeiting, in a bid to encourage the international cooperation it deems necessary to effectively fight this crime. The report highlights 17 countries around the world where it thinks cigarette counterfeiting is a particular problem and where the cigarette company has specific advice: Latvia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Egypt, Belize, Panama, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Ghana.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, is lending US$50 million to Bulgarian and Egyptian subsidiaries of UK-based oil/gas producer Melrose Resources, developing Egypt’s El Mansoura, Southeast El Mansoura, and Qantara Nile delta concessions, and Bulgaria’s Galata gas field and four adjacent offshore concessions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) will lend Euro 50 million to the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) to finance building a new gas 116km pipeline following the Nile, from Abu Qurqas to Asyut, southern Egypt. The EIB will also lend Euro 260 million to finance two 750 MW gas-fired combined-cycle power plants in northern Egypt.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is pressing the Egyptian government for talks on negotiating a wide-ranging food trade deal between the European Union and Egypt.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has unveiled European Commission plans to next year launch comprehensive legislation boosting effective carbon capture and storage.

The laws would remove legal barriers impeding research and development into this environmental technology and would also lay down rules on liability, for instance, if stored CO2 leached into the environment.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

THE COSMETICS and toiletries market in the Middle East is booming with 12% growth expected this year in a US$2.1 billion sector. Market trends differ from country to country, but the general trend is rising demand for European cosmetics over local products in the wealthier Arab countries, largely due to aggressive marketing campaigns by the major brands, and high demand for unregistered, fake brand name perfumes in countries with sizeable low-income populaces, such as Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Cairo

WITH the fight against money laundering and counter terrorism financing relatively new to the Middle East (the first plenary session of the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force

– MENA-FATF – was only held last year), financial institutions from the US and MENA met in Cairo for a Private Sector Dialogue (PSD) conference to discuss the implementation of international regulations in the region.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Cairo

THE EGYPTIAN government has passed new compulsory standards for its country’s booming private university sector, because teaching quality at the eight independent universities established in Egypt in the past decade has sometimes been poor.

With so many new institutions chasing a quick buck, teaching and facilities has been unreliable, Professor Farag Elkamel, Dean of Mass Communications at the Al-Ahram Canadian University (ACU) told the Times Higher Education Supplement.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Cairo

FOREIGN investment in Egypt is on the rise, spurred on by new legislation, deregulation and a pro-business Cabinet under Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, although there are still plenty of pitfalls for the unwary and unprepared.

Indeed, the door has only recently opened wide to overseas investors, with Egypt in 1997 allowing foreign companies 100% ownership of Egyptian companies, the repatriation of dividends and tax exemptions.…