Ebeid: economic conditions satisfactory
Egypt, Economics, 4/29/2000

Prime Minister Atef Ebeid said the conditions of the Egyptian economy are extremely satisfactory adding that the government is seriously acting to reactivate demand on the market as an urgent challenge.

Ebeid said about 15 official meetings would be held in the upcoming two weeks of which two at the ministers and governors levels with the aim of reactivating the market according to well-studied techniques and executive procedures of reactivation process will be studied.

Prime Minister Ebeid said the first of these meetings will be held today for tackling customs evasion. The study which has been conducted by the Ministry of Finance in Cooperation with the Federation of Industries and the Chambers of Commerce to be followed tomorrow by a meeting for considering the government's debts according to the directives of the President.

Ebeid said those debts would be repaid until the end of this year according to a specific program, adding that these debts will be paid from real resources without resort to issuing banknote.

"The agenda of the cabinet meeting next Tuesday includes two important items: the first is to reviewing a comprehensive report on utilization of foreign loans and aid in order to determine the policy of borrowing from abroad, restricting borrowing to soft term loans" Ebeid said .

The second item is to reviewing ways of reactivating trade, exports, promoting investment process . Ebeid, added that he had received a report from investment promotion groups in Egypt expressing commitment by 90 world groups to invest two billion dollar in Egypt in the long term.

Ebeid said he had received a message from Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai on the executive procedures for making Dubai a base for exporting Egyptian products to Asia and the establishment of an Egyptian zone on the Mediterranean for exporting Egyptian and gulf products to Europe.

"The governors will discuss at their meeting on Wednesday a comprehensive report on reactivating the sector of construction and building following the agreement in principle on the real mortgage bill," Ebeid said.

On measures for accelerating the implementation of privatization program according to the directives of President Mubarak, he said one of the upcoming meetings would be devoted for discussing means of increasing revenues of privatization program.

Ebeid said that the government is prepared to issue a tranche of the shares of the Egyptian telecommunications company, adding that it would shortly discuss with the President the proposed ratio of selling the company shares.

"Other meetings would be devoted for discussing oil, natural gas and tourist revenues, the role of the banking credit in increasing the volume of economic activity and reactivating stagnant commodities as well as future of investment in 310 joint companies and measures for transferring faltering companies in the public and private sectors into profit making companies," Ebeid concluded .

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