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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Features Interview Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Desperate for exports
EGYPT is trying hard to boost exports. However, as top Egyptian officials admit, success is far from remarkable. Dina Ezzat reportsLast Sunday during the opening session of the eighth conference for Egyptian businessmen overseas, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid called on those businessmen to use their contacts and expertise to help Egypt increase its share of international trade. This, Ebeid said, would be necessary to make up for the drop in national oil revenues.
The three-day event that is held regularly is supposed to allow for interested Egyptian expatriates to invest in Egypt. "Direct investments of Egyptian expatriates is necessary for increasing the levels of development in Egypt," Ebeid told participants.
For his part, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, whose ministry has been playing a key role in promoting the Egyptian economy, suggested a serious involvement by the participating businessmen in increasing Egyptian trade with target markets in Arab, African and Mediterranean countries.
"It would be a mistake [for the business community] to assume that these markets are of [no economic worth] since they are these particular markets that are being heavily targeted by the businessmen and entrepreneurs of the [prosperous] Asian economies," Moussa said.
Meanwhile, in a bid to increase the volume of Egyptian exports, Moussa had agreed to allow representatives of the Young Exporters Association (YEA) to take part in the meetings of the joint committees that Egypt has with several countries. Moussa also agreed to include the YEA on the itinerary of visiting commercial delegations. "This will certainly allow for good contacts and market openings for our association. This means more Egyptian exports," said Nermine Nour, the YEA chairperson.
Shaking up insurance
FOR MANY years Egypt, one of the first countries to adopt a well-defined social insurance policy, followed a defined benefit system which effectively prevented the investment of social insurance funds. The social insurance umbrella, which covers public enterprises as well as private sector employees, includes, too, the Sadat and Mubarak pensions, paid at monthly rates of LE70 and LE100 respectively to the most disadvantaged families, reports Sherine Nasr.But according to the latest statistics by the Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs (MISA), some LE1 billion of social insurance funds have now been invested -- 90 per cent with the National Investment Bank (NIB) at an interest rate ranging from six per cent for earlier insurance deposits to eleven per cent for recent deposits.
And since 1998 the MISA has been actively seeking investments other than the NIB. Significantly, it has, for the first time, invested an admittedly small amount in the capital market.
"The criteria was to involve in very low-risk, long-term investments," said Noha Bakr, representative of a USAID training programme for social insurance personnel (TAPR).
The three-week training programme in which members of the NIB, the capital market and the MISA are involved, focuses on making comparative studies between Egypt and countries in the process of re-organising their social insurance systems. For a whole year, TAPR has been involved in capacity building, reviewing social insurance legislation and providing technical assistance to the investment department affiliated to the MISA.
