New arrangements NORBERT Walter, chief economist of Deutsche Bank Group, has said that progress on the multilateral trade system is expected to slow down. "This means bilateral and regional trade will be more important for international trade," Walter said at a meeting of members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo and the German Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Walter said in light of the outcome of the Hong Kong World Trade Organisation ministerial conference, multilateral trade would probably slow down. He added the heavyweights in trade, such as China and the US, can make bilateral arrangements favourable to them and that it is smaller countries that will suffer from the failure of the multilateral system. Walter warned that Egypt should be concerned because it does not belong to any viable regional arrangement. He suggested integration with the EU as the most appropriate arrangement for Egypt. "Today's trade ties strongly support this idea," Walter said, referring to Egypt's trade and historical relations. He said Egypt should seek to make use of its strong relationship with German, Italy or France to support its integration with Europe. During his address Walter highlighted the importance of trade diversification saying it was important to diversify dependence on oil, textiles and agricultural exports, and to move up the value-added ladder. "Your future will depend on services," Walter said. He also praised Egypt for making headway in attracting direct foreign investment, "but it should sustain that by upgrading education and stabilising the political situation." Mahmoud Mohieddin, minister of investment, acknowledged the importance of such political stability, saying a couple of years of economic reform and growth are not enough. "Growth is when people's freedom to express themselves is well established," Mohieddin said. He said the new People's Assembly will not endanger the passage of reform. "The NDP still has the majority of seats and there are powers with the president," he said, adding nothing would jeopardise the reform agenda and its implementation. He added though that it will not be as easy as in the past. "It means better communication between government and the public, better lobbying and no time to relax," Mohieddin said, adding that so far the Muslim Brotherhood have not come up with anything that could be held against them. A, B and C AIMING at facilitating trade and customs procedures in Egypt, the European Union (EU) has launched the Trade Enhancement Programmes -- TEP-A, B, and C -- with a 66.5 million euro budget. Teaming up with the Egyptian Commercial Service (ECS), an affiliation of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry, the EU is addressing the business community needs to facilitate trade in Egypt. TEP-A, launched a year ago with a budget of 20 million euros, has managed to enhance the performance of the ECS by using IT tools such as building a Web site to assist new and start-up companies in exporting to the global market. "Another very important aspect of TEP-A is developing our human resources," Ashraf El-Rabie, head of the ECS, said, adding that several trade attachés have been trained in European embassies on how to increase Egyptian exports. The programme also aims at increasing exports of Egyptian products such as textiles, ready- made garments, agricultural crops and food products. TEP-B and C programmes focus on upgrading customs procedures. With a budget of 46 million euros, the programmes have so far been successful in simplifying customs procedures, increasing transparency and making customs more user-friendly. "We are very happy to see that a recent World Bank report on business environment concluded that Egypt is an international leader in reforming customs," Georgios Tsitsopoulos, head of the operations programmes at the EU, said. Giant Japanese TO ENHANCE economic cooperation with Japan, Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga has met representatives of the Japanese telecommunications giants Sumitomo and Nippon. The two companies are among the most important in Japan and have been doing business in Egypt for many years. Their export and import activities have realised accelerated rates of progress the last few years. During the meeting the two sides discussed issues of mutual concern particularly the ongoing contribution of Sumitomo and Nippon in conducting a feasibility study on an Egyptian Museum project being financed by a Japanese loan as part of an easy-terms finance package. Abul-Naga appreciated Japan's unprecedented step in providing the necessary funds for the project through three governmental entities -- the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the Japanese External Trade Organisation (JETRO) and the Japanese International Cooperation Authority (JICA). Swiss help THE ANNUAL budget of the Egyptian Swiss Fund for Development has been agreed upon. The accord was signed by Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga and the Swiss ambassador to Egypt. The budget of the fund, part of a debt swap agreement with the Swiss government, is estimated at LE8 million. At a press conference, Abul-Naga said that since the establishment of the fund in 1995 with the aim of financing developing projects in Egypt, the fund had established 98 projects in 19 governorates with a total value of LE509 million. She said the projects had helped create job opportunities, improved the living standard of residents of the governorates and developed social and environmental conditions. During the meeting it was agreed that the budget allocated for Al-Gamaliya development project would be increased from LE8.5 million to LE10 million. The project aims at maintaining Al-Gamaliya's touristic heritage and improving its environmental situation. Total Swiss economic assistance provided to Egypt since 1978 is 330 million Swiss francs of which 240 million francs are loans and 90 million are grants. The funds have financed projects in electricity, transportation, health and irrigation.
