Ministerial economic group discusses activating privatization program

Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Ebeid meets today with the economic ministerial group and senior bankers to approve the new system of foreign exchange rates, to be effective tomorrow, and ways of activating the national privatization program.

Ebeid due to hold two meetings on Sunday and Monday to follow up the recent measures taken to control the move of the market.

The government will also involve in carrying out two programs for raising the country's resources of foreign currencies and decreasing the local debt.

The first programme depends on increasing the state's revenues from petroleum, tourism, Egyptian expatriates' remittances and exports in a way that pumps more dollars needed to meet the country's needs and strike a balance between the needs and rights. An official source said Ebeid issued strict instructions to the government authorities to limit their purchases to the locally manufactured goods and refrain from buying foreign similar goods.