Al-Ahram Weekly | Economy

		Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 7 -13 December 2000 Issue No.511
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Technical advice
THE DEPARTMENT of the Social Fund for Development (SFD) in charge of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) will make use of extensive consultancy services in the next few months. The Electronic Research Institute will provide technical advice to SMEs which are financed by the SFD and operating in the field of electronics and Information Technology (IT). The aim is to upgrade their production for export. Cooperation will include advising SMEs on new projects in the IT field, according to SFD managing director Hussein El-Gammal.
SFD also signed a cooperation agreement with the Petroleum Research Institute, according to which the latter will help SMEs operate in the chemicals and petrochemicals fields.
Regarding SFD's third financing phase, El-Gammal added that the fund is currently negotiating with Arab and international funding institutions the increase of their contributions to $1 billion. In the first phase of SFD operations (1992-96), these financial contributions amounted to $650 million, while in the second phase (1996-2002), they are expected to reach $800 million.
Bill paying made easy
THE DAYS of taking two hours off from work to rush through traffic and then wait in long queues to pay insurance, telephone, cable television and Internet bills can now be consigned to the dustbin of bad memories.
Payment through special automatic teller machines will soon be available at locations easily accessible to the public, including sporting clubs, shopping malls, restaurants and the offices of private companies. Not only will payment this way be less onerous, but the service itself will be free.
This initiative is being offered by Telecom Egypt, the national fixed telephone line provider, in cooperation with Citibank. The first of these machines was inaugurated earlier this week at the Ramses Telecommunication Centre.
Plans are also afoot to extend the provision of this service outside of Cairo.

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