Tamkeen launched SOME 25,000 jobs and training opportunities may soon be available through a new initiative launched by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). The initiative, called “Tamkeen”, (Enablement) was launched this week. It aims at providing 25,000 jobs and training opportunities for Egyptian youth in six months and to reach one million job opportunities during the coming seven years. The project will involve total investment of around 100 million Euros during the first three years. It will be implemented by MTI in cooperation with the Industrial Training Council and Sidar Bridge Company, an Arab investment fund. Last week, Sidar Bridge Company signed several contracts with international training centres in England, Germany, Italy and Turkey to start the first phase of the project. A beneficiary will get an international certificate that he passed the training programme according to international specifications in the industry or service sector. Khaled Abu Bakr, head of the Egyptian Italian Business Council, explained that the project would be a good chance for young Egyptian graduates to get a job in Italian companies investing in Egypt looking for well-trained labour in the industrial sector. Sukuk law is drafted THE EGYPTIAN Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) has finished the draft of a law, known as sukuk, regulating the trading of bonds in ways compliant with Islamic law. According to an EFSA statement, the draft of the law was put together after studying international experiences in such regulations. The draft includes activities that can be financed by sukuk and the different kinds of financing instruments available. The bill stipulates the approval of a committee of three Islamic finance scholars on any sukuk offering before it is issued. The draft only covers sukuk offered by private companies and does not include sovereign sukuk, issued by states. According to the statement, the Ministry of Finance has already drafted another bill for bonds issued by the government and state-owned bodies. EFSA's board approved the bill and will start discussing its terms with related parties before following the legal procedures to issue the law. Higher electricity bills EGYPTIAN households will start paying higher electricity rates this month. The cabinet approved Sunday a decision to raise the price of a kilowatt of electricity in homes by LE0.03 to LE0.1, depending on the volume of consumption. According to the cabinet, those consuming less than 50 kilowatts are exempt from the rise. This bracket, representing seven million consumers, will be paying the current price of LE0.025 per kilowatts. A number of activists and NGOs criticised the move. They prepared a schedule showing the value of the new electricity bills calculated according to the maximum level of consumption for the consumption bracket. According to the “No For Everything Wrong” Facebook page, the December bill for the second category, which consumes between 50-200 kilowatts, would be LE28 compared to only LE22 currently. The increase will also be felt by those belonging to the highest bracket, consuming more than 1,000 kilowatts, as the expected bill stands at LE580 compared to LE480 on the old pricing system. The increase in price comes as part of a plan to reduce electricity consumption after summer's extended blackouts. Last month, the cabinet decided to enforce earlier closing hours for shops and restaurants starting this week. But the cabinet said Saturday the decision is postponed for now. EU threats THE EU should stop any kind of economic cooperation with Egypt as a means to pressure President Mohamed Morsi to back down on his recent decisions, said Martin Schulz, head of the European Parliament, to a German magazine earlier this week. Last month, an EU delegation visited Egypt and announced it will inject 200 million Euros in the Egyptian budget through December. This comes as a part of the five billion Euros package that the EU agreed Egypt over a two-year period. Part of the financial package is linked to Egypt's acquisition of a $4.8 billion IMF loan. Schulz said the EU should take a clear stance of what has been happening in Egypt and not cooperate with the country before Egypt has a democratic system.
