The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) launched a new initiative to support tourism sector Tuesday, deferring the debts owed by the tourism sector to banks for three years. This initiative includes the establishment of a special unit at CBE to contribute to the restructure of the sector's debts of the sector. The initiative also features coordination between banks and the clients benefiting from the initiative. This unit will be activated from mid-March. According to CBE's statement, numerous meetings have been held with tourism officials to discuss their needs over the upcoming period. It explained the initiative comes in the framework of CBE's renewed focus on the tourism sector since it is a vital feature of the national economy and an important source is of foreign currency. CBE had launched a similar initiative on 13 March 2013 to support the tourism sector. During its meeting on 17 February, the CBE board decided to issue directions to banks to defer all dues on existing loans provided to clients in this sector, given that they had been regularly repaying loans up until 13 March 2013. It announced the initiative will be valid for a year from the launch date, during which any requests for the deferral of bank dues will be accepted for a period of three years at the most. CBE launched a similar initiative to support workers in the tourism sector on 3 December 2015, through which banks were allowed to defer consumer debts.
