Business brainstorming

CAIRO is expected to host the first business roundtable organised by the Economist's conference division 27-28 January. The meeting, to be attended by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, a number of concerned ministers and the Central Bank governor, will be an open forum bringing business executives and government officials together to discuss economic problems in Egypt.

Egypt is the first country in the Middle East to be hosting such an event. The meeting's organisers think it will help the government upgrade the country's business environment.

Stable toll

THE SUEZ Canal Authority (SCA) will not be raising its tolls in 2003, for the seventh year running. The announcement was recently made by SCA Chairman Ahmed Fadel, who said the decision was taken due to the global economic slowdown.

The SCA has managed to make sizeable revenues, nevertheless, reaching $1.955 billion in 2002 and $1.9 billion the year before. The revenue increase is attributed to the development of the canal to allow larger vessels to pass through. The authority is currently working on deepening the canal's draught from 62 feet to 66 feet.

Linking up for gas

OPERATION of the first phase of the Arab natural gas pipeline is set for June 2003. The extension of a natural gas pipeline from Egypt to Jordan is part of a larger $1 billion scheme to establish a natural gas grid between four Arab countries -- Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The announcement was made in Cairo last week by Egyptian Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy as he met with his Jordanian, Lebanese and Syrian counterparts.

The four oil and energy ministers also signed an agreement to establish the Arab Gas Authority, headquartered in Beirut, and the Arab Gas Transport and Marketing Company, based in Damascus. The four partners are to have joint ownership of the two new bodies.

The pipeline is scheduled to be connected from Jordan to Syria by 2005 and later extended to Lebanon. Other Arab countries may join the project pending approval of the four founding countries.

The project will support Egypt's plans to boost its natural gas exports. Egypt's natural gas reserves are currently estimated at over 1.5 million cubic metres.

ICT focus

THE ARAB Business Forum for Information and Communications Technology (ABFICT) held its first annual conference in Cairo earlier this week. ABFICT, established a year ago, aims at promoting Arab private sector cooperation in the area of information and communications technology (ICT).

At this year's conference, entitled "Common Vision for Arab ICT development," ABFICT co-chairman, Adel Danish, presented an overview of the forum's achievements over the past year and the expectations for the future. The forum's three working groups addressed business development, e-learning and increasing Arabic content on the Internet.

Among the forum's aims are strengthening the relationship between the Arab ICT business community and policy-makers in the ICT sector, marketing Arab ICT products and services and establishing contacts with international organisations that support ICT growth.

A statement of cooperation was signed between ABFICT and the Global Business Dialogue for Electronic Commerce (GBDe). Danish and Martin Velasco, member of the business steering committee of GBDe, signed the agreement. GBDe -- a worldwide, CEO-led, business initiative established in 1999 to assist in the creation of a policy framework for the development of a global online economy -- held its annual conference in Cairo this year.