New role for minister MINISTER of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat has been appointed Egypt's governor at the World Bank and several other regional and world economic institutions, according to a statement released on 18 January. Formerly minister of tourism, Al-Mashat won the World Travel Tourism Council's Global Champion Award at the 2019 Global Summit in Seville, Spain, for her role in promoting the tourism industry. Al-Mashat was appointed to the tourism portfolio in 2018 and is the first woman to hold the position. Known for her work on monetary policy and global economics, she has been employed by a number of international financial institutions. She is the recipient granted of the Economic Leaders for Tomorrow in Africa award, the 2013 Alumni Award from AUC's School of Business, and her work has been lauded by the Institute Choiseul (2014 and 2015) and the International Visitor Leadership Programme. Al-Mashat is a former advisor to the chief economist of the IMF and in 2014 was named one of the most powerful women in the Egyptian banking sector.
A mega project ON SATURDAY Housing Minister Assem Al-Gazzar laid the foundation stone of the largest integrated medical city in the Middle East and Africa. Capital Med, located in Badr city to the east of Cairo, is being developed by Egyptians for Health Care Services (EHCS), a private company. Planned on 110 acres, the project will be completed in seven to 10 years and in three phases. It is expected to create 10,000 to 13,000 new jobs. EHCS Chairman Hassan Al-Kalla said Capital Med will be a world class facility providing healthcare to the highest international standards. It will have more than 2,000 beds, and will also offer medical education, training and research in all specialties. The LE18 billion project will include numerous clinics, a hotel and 11 specialised medical centres.
Smart electricity app THE MINISTRY of Electricity and Renewable Energy is planning to introduce a smart phone app to cut down on over-billing due to human error. The programme will allow consumers to record their meter readings and pay their electricity bills from anywhere. The initiative will also allow citizens to charge prepaid household electricity meters at any time from their mobile phones. A standard charging programme for prepaid electricity cards will be launched at the end of this month and the programme for recording monthly electricity consumption will be in place in all governorates by April. The programme involves standardising the databases of electricity distribution companies and linking them to an electronic pre-collection system.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 23 January, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
