The Telegraph Egypt reverses visa on arrival ban for Britons The Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced last month that from May 15, Britons travelling outside of tour groups would not be able to obtain visas on arrival, and would instead have to face consulate bureaucracy, long waits and a higher cost to get entry permits in London. The government has now decided that the deadline to stop issuing on-arrival visas for lone travellers will be delayed until the creation of an electronic visa system - for which it gave no timeline. "The purpose of this measure is to organise the process of foreigners entering the country within a framework that respects national sovereignty, considers national security, and at the same time does not affect tourism," the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/africaandindianocean/egypt/11512069/Egypt-reverses-visa-on-arrival-ban-for-Britons.html The Washington Post The politics of restoring Egypt's military aid On Tuesday, President Obama called Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and conveyed news of long-brewing decisions in the Obama administration regarding U.S. military aid to Egypt – including the release of some long-withheld arms that Egypt desperately wants. The announcement, like most U.S. policy pronouncements on Egypt in recent years, is likely to satisfy nobody – and, also like other such pronouncements, it does not suggest that the administration has a coherent approach to this geostrategic country. For close observers of the role of military aid in the U.S.-Egyptian relationship, however, the decision is more significant than it seems. Meanwhile, the administration will end the preferential practice of "cash-flow financing," whereby Egypt is allowed to sign contracts for military equipment on credit, obligating future military aid appropriations for years to come. Moreover, the administration will judge new Egyptian military purchases against four goals: counterterrorism, border security, maritime security and Sinai security. This suggests, but does not require, that Egypt will no longer be able to use its military aid from the United States to buy items like passenger aircraft for its senior officers and perhaps not major weapons systems that cannot be tied to the four goals. The change gives the U.S. government greater ability to shape the delivery of aid to advance specific policy goals with Cairo down the road. Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/04/02/the-politics-of-restoring-egypts-military-aid/ The Daily Mail Militants strike Egypt's Sinai, kill 15 troops, 3 civilians Islamic militants unleashed a wave of attacks in Egypt's northern Sinai on Thursday, hitting a military checkpoint and killing 15 soldiers there while near-simultaneous attacks elsewhere in the volatile stretch of the peninsula left three civilians dead, officials said. The attacks were the latest in a series of complex assaults and ambushes in recent months despite a large-scale military campaign that has tried to suppress the growing insurgency in northern Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip. The deadliest of Thursday's attacks mirrored past ones, suggesting careful planning by the militants. The attack on the military checkpoint south of the town of Sheikh Zuweid killed 15 troops and wounded at least 19, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3022605/Security-officials-Sinai-attacks-kill-10-Egyptian-troops.html#ixzz3WETdTjoP The Wall Street Journal Egypt Must Deliver on Reform Promises, Investors Urge The outcome of the Sharm El Sheikh conference held last month certainly underscored Egypt's recent turnaround efforts, but the coming months will be crucial for the country to provide evidence that its economy has finally turned a corner and is steadily on the road of recovery. Some analysts, however, said some of the announcements made at Sharm El Sheikh were short on detail. "While the right noises were made, the lack of detailed policies meant the conference was a bit underwhelming," said Jason Tuvey of London-based Capital Economics. He also doubts whether a plan to build a new administrative capital will "get much further than the drawing board." Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/frontiers/2015/04/02/egypt-must-deliver-on-reform-promises-investors-urge/ Al Monitor Will Egypt's new administrative capital help its economy? The Egypt Economic Development Conference, held in Sharm el-Sheikh in mid-March and attended by Arab and international leaders, has achieved overwhelming success and attracted initial investments estimated at $60 billion, according to the closing speech of Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb. The largest deal, estimated at $45 billion, was signed during the conference between the Egyptian government and the United Arab Emirates' Emaar Properties and aims at creating a new administrative capital. Former Minister of Economy Sultan Abu Ali told Al-Monitor that the main motive behind the creation of the new administrative capital is the rapid expansion of Cairo and its major problems, which include traffic issues as well as social problems that result from 16 million people, or one-sixth of the population of Egypt, living in the capital. This overcrowding has also led to the emergence of slums in Greater Cairo along with an increased crime rate and more homeless children. Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/04/egypt-economy-conference-foreign-investments-future-gdp.html##ixzz3WERu5cUn
