Smart cards on track THE NEW cabinet intends to press ahead with the smart-card system introduced by the ousted former government in a bid to limit the smuggling of subsidised products. Finance Minister Ahmed Galal has reportedly received a report on the progress of the new system, whose first phase has been successfully completed and whose second stage, involving the issuing of smart cards to fuel and diesel consumers, is intended to be implemented gradually over the next two months. This stage will start by the issuing of one million smart cards to diesel-powered vehicles and then five million cards to petrol-powered vehicles, in addition to issuing smart cards to other fuel consumers such as factories, bakeries, ships and agricultural tractors. The report said that there would be no caps imposed on the quantities of fuel allowed for each vehicle. However, the selling of petrol to customers at petrol stations would be registered electronically. The report said that the main aim of the system was to eliminate the smuggling of petroleum products that eats up 30 per cent of subsidies through monitoring and tightening controls over the distribution process of these subsidised products. The report added that one million smart cards for diesel consumers were ready to be issued and that the places where consumers could pick them up would be announced soon. Meanwhile, owners of cars running on petrol will have to register their vehicles on the www.esp.gov.eg website, where they can also choose the places where they can pick up their cards. OCI to delist ORASCOM Construction Industries (OCI), the biggest publicly-traded company on the Egyptian Stock Exchange, is on its way to delist from the stock market. The news came as holders of 89 per cent of the company's equity accepted a buyout offer submitted by OCI's parent company, OCI NV, which is an Amsterdam-based fertiliser-maker. The latter's month-long offer to buy the 50.2 million shares of the Cairo-based company for LE255 each, or swap them for those of OCI NV, ended earlier this week. Holders of 29.2 million Orascom Construction Company shares, 58.1 per cent of the company's equity, accepted the cash offer, and owners of 15.7 million shares, 31.3 per cent of equity, accepted the swap offer, the bourse said in a statement. According to stock exchange rules, companies with at least five per cent of their shares available to trade can remain listed. Only 1.6 per cent of OCI's 11 per cent equity that is not owned by OCI NV is now free-floating, in other words able to be bought and sold on the stock exchange. Orascom, which listed its shares on the Egyptian bourse in 1999, represents 25 per cent of the local benchmark EGX30 index. The company's capitalisation is some LE50.3 billion. Power from the sun EGYPT's Minister of Electricity and Energy Ahmed Emam announced the establishment of the country's first solar energy production project on Sunday, to be carried out by the private sector at a capacity of 200 megawatts (MW). Emam said that the ministry welcomed local and foreign investors to present expertise that would enable them to implement the “Build, Own, Operate” project under the framework approved by the government. Emam also said that the project would consist of 10 electricity sub-stations operated using photovoltaic cells, each producing 20 MW. The project is part of the five-year plan (2012-17) to add 3,500 MW from solar power to the nation's electricity grid, with the private sector contributing 67 per cent of the targeted capacity.
