Exporting made easy

THE "GUIDE to exporting to the US market", recently published by the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (AmCham), is a valuable book for Egyptian exporters to the US to keep on hand.

The guide is part of efforts to boost business and trade activities between Egypt and the US. It provides Egyptian manufacturers interested in exporting to the US with information on the rules and regulations of US customs procedures. It also highlights Egypt's Most Favored Nation (MFN) status with regards to US customs duties and its inclusion in the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), a US government programme that provides duty-free treatment for certain products entering the US.

The guide highlights four key sectors with a good track record of exporting to the US: processed foods, textiles and garments, steel and iron and wood and furniture. It gives information on the specific tariffs charged on items from these sectors, as well as the procedures the imported products must follow. Moreover, the guide overviews the status of Egypt's current export performance and evaluates Egypt's export potential to the US.

Suez oil finds

THE EDFU platform, the first major oil platform to be installed in the Gulf of Suez since 1994, has recorded a production figure of 10,000 barrels of oil per day from its first development well.

The announcement was made by British Petroleum (BP), a partner of the company operating the field, the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (GUPCO). The other partner in GUPCO is the Egyptian General Petroleum Company (EGPC).

Two other wells at the Edfu field are due to come on stream in the next six months, a BP press release said. These will increase the field's output to nearly 25,000 barrels per day. Total proven reserves in Edfu are approximately 25 to 30 million barrels of oil.

A grand IT affair

CeBIT 2003, the largest IT and telecommunications fair in the world, will be held in Hannover from 12 to 19 March.

Organised by Deutsche Messe AG, CeBIT will display the wares of 7,100 companies from 59 countries. Last year, the fair attracted 137,000 visitors. Peter Gopfrich, executive director of the German-Arab Chamber of Commerce, expects the figure to double in the upcoming event.

CeBIT will offer Egypt an excellent opportunity to show off its increasingly dynamic IT sector to operators interested in partnerships. "Nearly 15 Egyptian companies will participate in CeBIT 2003 in order to establish a presence in the German market," Gopfrich told Al-Ahram Weekly at a press conference promoting the event.

Dalia Qabil, head of the fairs department at the German-Arab Chamber of Commerce, said participating companies will showcase the latest IT technologies, including hardware, software, multimedia, telecommunications, computers and networking services.

On the fringe of the fair, the Information Technology and Communication World Forum will be held to discuss issues related to IT technologies and their effect on the economy, according to Dtlev Rossa, public relations manager of Deutsche Messe AG. The ICT World Forum at CeBIT 2003 will attract 500 of the world's IT and communications leaders to explore the pressing issues of the world ICT marketplace.

Zahran joins the UN

EGYPT'S former chief WTO negotiator, Mounir Zahran, has been unanimously elected by the UN General Assembly as one of three people representing Africa on the UN's Advisory Committee for Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ).

Zahran, a retired diplomat, will be the only Arab in the ACABQ for the period 2003-2005. ACABQ, created by a UN General Assembly decision in 1946, reviews the financial implications of all the activities of the UN, including the budget and the peace- keeping missions. There are 16 individuals on the ACABQ, including the committee's president.