Bank upgrade THE CENTRAL Bank of Egypt and the European Union celebrated the end of a two-year technical assistance programme. Mona El-Fiqi attended. The programme is part of the Central Bank of Egypt's reform plan of the banking sector and the banking supervision division. Tarek Amer, CBE deputy governor said that the programme helped the CBE to shift the banking supervision from the compliance-based approach to a risk-based approach in supervision. The technical assistance programme, made in cooperation with the European Central Bank, is funded by the European Union. The total cost of the programme, which started in December 20005, is three million euros. The Eurosystem project aims at providing assistance to the CBE through a comprehensive diagnostic and gap analysis of the current practice in the field of banking supervision in the design of a development plan for banking supervision in line with international best practice. According to Amer, the programme was formed to develop and upgrade the necessary specialist skills and knowledge among staff to meet current and anticipated challenges. Ghada Maher, a banker and one of CBE's staff who participated in the technical programme, told Al-Ahram Weekly that she benefited from the programme. She added that her skills were upgraded by attending a series of seminars held by high-level bankers from EU national banks. Moreover, Maher added that the programme helped to raise awareness among the CBE junior staff about issues at the forefront of the current international debates. Amer added that the CBE has to gear itself to meet the challenges worldwide and to keep a healthy economic environment in Egyptian markets. Amer added: "We consider this successful programme a cornerstone on which future developments will be built." Technical cooperation between the CBE and the EU will continue in the future. Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, member of the executive board and governor of the council of the European Central Bank said a new project in cooperation with CBE is currently under preparation and will need to be carefully tailored to CBE's requirements. "There is no doubt the supervisory procedures need to be continuously reviewed and upgraded according to international standards, representing the main challenges ahead in Egypt," added Smaghi. Energy investment THE MINISTRY of Petroleum and Mineral Resources is carrying out an ambitious plan to develop a number of newly explored oilfields in the areas of the Gulf of Suez and the Western Desert. Among those is the GUPCO (Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company) and BP (British Petroleum) owned by Saqqara field which will begin production in early 2008 with initial estimates of 20,000 oil barrel per day (pbd) and 20 million cubic feet of natural gas (NG). Discovered in 2003, production from Saqqara is expected to rise to 30,000 oil pbd and 27 million cubic feet of NG by mid-2008. Saqqara was developed at an investment cost of $366 million, totally provided by the foreign partner BP. Moreover, some $600 million will also be spent by BP over the next five years to restore and develop the infrastructure of the operating facilities in the Gulf of Suez to guarantee the safety of personnel and equipment. In the meantime, production from Petrobel's Sinai oilfields was increased to 145,000 bpd which represent almost 30 per cent of the company's total production of 500,000 bpd from other oilfields in the Gulf of Suez, the Delta and the Mediterranean. "A number of projects is underway to help facilitate gas and oil production from the company fields," said Medhat El-Sayed, chairman of Petrobel. Another wind farm A MEMORANDUM of Understanding (MoU) was signed Monday between Italgen, a subsidiary of the Italcementi Group, and the Ministry of Electricity and Energy to build a major wind farm in the district of Gabal Al-Zayat on the Red Sea coast. Planned to be developed into a maximum power of 400MW, the new wind farm will be one of the largest on the Red Sea area which already hosts a number of operating wind farms in Zaafarana to the north of the allocated site. Feasibility studies for the project is expected to be completed by mid-2008. The MoU is part of a national plan that was declared earlier this year to integrate more renewable energy, particularly wind and solar energy into industrial and commercial applications. In April 2007, the government announced that 20 per cent of the total electricity demands of the country will be generated by renewable energy by 2020. "With the possible collaboration of local and international partners, Italcementi Group is interested in consolidating its operations in Egypt in the field of electricity production which lies in the core of our business," said Carlo Pesenti, chief executive officer of Italcementi. Cheaper mobiles? THE INFORMATION Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) signed an agreement with a Chinese group to manufacture mobile phones in Egypt. The contract, worth $50 million, was signed by Ahmed Abu Talib, manager of the Technological Industries Development Programme at ITIDA, and Shenzhen's Mayor Xu Zongheng. The aim of the agreement is to produce mobile phones with functions used by Arab users, including an Arabic menu, according to ITIDA CEO Mohamed Omran. Hence, a joint research and development centre will be established to manufacture products for the domestic market as well as to export to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. According to Dalia Gamal, executive director of the Technological Industries Development Programme at ITIDA, Chinese investment in Egypt is an indicator of Egypt's strategy to develop the electronic manufacturing. A delegation of 33 Chinese companies was in Cairo for the agreement. The companies together constitute a total daily production of 150,000 mobile phones. Omran explained the benefits of investing in Egypt, emphasising that manufacturing and exporting mobile phones to MENA countries will be a huge step for the Egyptian mobile phone industry. He added that the joint project confirms Egypt as the manufacturing hub for Middle East labour and high-tech industries. Currently, Chinese investments in Egypt total some $300 million in the sectors of oil, telecommunications and port facilities. While many local experts and customers questioned the quality of Chinese products, others praised the agreement which will make cheap phones available. Ahmed Osama, an economic analyst, expressed concern about the quality of the product and urged caution in implementing the project. In defence, ITIDA's Gamal said China is one of the leading manufacturing countries in the world, adding that the joint project will benefit Egypt's development. She said the project should not be judged before production starts.
