Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt

		10 - 16 October 2002 Issue No. 607 Home news	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

IPRA conference in Egypt

THE INTERNATIONAL Public Relations Association (IPRA) will hold its annual conference in Cairo next week from 13-15 October under the title "Public relations in the changing global environment", Willa Thayer reports.
Chairperson of the IPRA Cairo Conference Loula Zaklama told Al-Ahram Weekly that hosting the event represents a feather in Egypt's cap. "I have been trying for the past four years to have the conference in Cairo. Our hosting the event this year is a sign that Egypt has been integrated into the global economy in terms of communications." She said the last time the event was held in Cairo was in 1982.
Some 150-200 delegates are expected to attend the conference at which Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Safwat El-Sherif and Mamdouh El-Beltagui, ministers of information and tourism, respectively, are scheduled to address attendees. Other speakers include public relations professionals, academics, journalists and finance and IT corporation executives.
Among the topics that conference sessions will treat are e- communications, non-governmental organisation-corporate- partnerships and case studies of public relations in developing countries. Zaklama drew particular attention to a panel discussion on media transparency.
The IPRA was founded in 1955 and is based in London. The association has more than 2,000 members from approximately 90 countries.
Who's a VIP?

AVIATION Minister Ahmed Shafiq has banned businessmen from using Cairo International Airport's VIP lounge. Following an attempt three months ago by a businessman using the facility to smuggle into the country Viagra pills estimated to be worth LE6 million in his luggage, Shafiq had said that businessmen should not be allowed to use the lounge. This week, the minister made the directive official policy.
According to Ibrahim Mana'a, head of the holding company for airports, a new VIP lounge open to businessmen and others is to be constructed near the main airport. "The new lounge will be built on a piece of land 4,000 metres square and it will have the capacity to serve 170 passengers per hour." The facility will include a business centre, restaurants, conference rooms and offices for hotels and banks.
Shafiq said that the new lounge is being conceived as a profit-making venture. This ethos will be extended to the current VIP lounge, too. "Ministers and top officials who use the old VIP lounge will be required to pay a fee on arrival and departure," Shafiq said.
Who will lead the Liberal Party? After party members held five separate elections proclaiming five different chairmen, the Shura Council's Political Parties Committee now faces the task of sorting out the mess. Mona El-Nahhas reports

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