Greek Community of Alexandria

Category: ECONOMY

News about economy

  • Egypt Plans to Implement ‘Electronic Visa Application System’ to Attract More Tourists

    Egypt Plans to Implement ‘Electronic Visa Application System’ to Attract More Tourists

    In a step that aims to facilitate visa procedures to tourists, Egypt’s Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar met with Telecommunication Minister Yasser Al-Qady to discuss the development of a new system that will allow issuance of electronic visas.

    The step is expected to positively affect the tourism sector and the rate of incoming tourists to Egypt, as it will facilitate the procedures of obtaining the Egyptian visa.

    President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi ordered to accelerate the implementation of the E-Visa system during his meeting with the Supreme Council for Tourism. Travelers will be able to obtain their Egyptian visa through an online system that will speed up the procedures for obtaining visas and smoothen the process undertaken in the airports upon their arrival.

    Abdel-Ghaffar said the Interior Ministry is keen on implementing the new system and also upgrade the security technological systems it has. Al-Qady stressed the importance of the cooperation between the two ministries in order to achieve the highest quality possible of services for foreign nationals in Egypt.

    Member of Parliament Mohamed Al-Massoud said the E-Visas system will help boost tourism in Egypt.

    (egyptianstreets.com)

  • 2nd Delphi Economic Forum: New strategic equation in eastern Med

    2nd Delphi Economic Forum: New strategic equation in eastern Med

    The speakers at the 2nd Delphi Economic Forum expressed reserved optimism over the possibility of a solution to the Cyprus issue even in the long term as well as over the energy reserves found in the eastern Mediterranean.

    The panel on the ?new strategic equation in eastern Mediterranean? was held with the participation of Nadia Arbatova, head of the Institute of World Economy and International relations of Moscow, Ian Lesser, vice president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States of America, Theodoros Pangalos vice president of the Greek government in 2009-2012 and former Foreign Minister and Dr. Thanos Dokos general director of Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy ELIAMEP.

    The speakers called the wider region of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East as a difficult situation especially after the election of Donald Trump.

    On her part, Arbatova referred to US-Russia relations after the election of Donald Trump and the volatile conditions in the Middle East stressing that Russian President Putin is trying to take advantage of the gap opened by the reduction of US commitments abroad and to reverse the view that Russia is a regional and not an international power. She also estimated that this was the reason for Russia’s involvement in Syria, return to an older status in which President Putin failed to succeed. On Turkey-Russia’s relations she said that they will never become strategic partners only occasional or ad hoc partners.

    (www.tornosnews.gr)

  • Egypt to increase visa fees for incoming tourists by 140%

    Egypt to increase visa fees for incoming tourists by 140%

    Tourists will have to pay $60 for their entry visa to Egypt, compared to the previous $25 for single entry and $70 for multiple entry visas, Egyptian airport officials said.

    They also added that banks and travel and tour agencies have received notifications from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the new price, which will be taking effect in July after Prime Minister postponed the implementation that was originally scheduled for Wednesday.

    The rise in prices is a result of the country’s vital tourism industry struggling to restore its normality and recover after it was heavily shaken when a Russian plane was downed in October 2015 over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board, which caused a dramatic drop in tourism figures since tourists were scared away by the incident.

    Egypt’s tourism revenues witnessed a 44.3% drop in 2016, compared to the year before.

    With the resumption of flights from multiple European countries like Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and others that had previously suspended their flights to Egypt after the Russian plane incident, and with the new entry visa fees, the country hopes to witness an increase in foreign currency reserves.

    Egypt last increased its entry visa fees in April 2014, from $15 to $25.

    (www.dailynewsegypt.com)

  • Egypt Heads Project to Connect 10 African Countries through Nile Shipping Line

    Egypt Heads Project to Connect 10 African Countries through Nile Shipping Line

    By 2024, a 4,000 kilometers waterway will connect ten African countries, stretching between Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea. An Egypt-led project, the navigational shipping line is to be established along the Nile River for small and medium-size commercial vessels to boost bilateral trade.

    Egyptian Minister of Water and Irrigation Moahmed Abdel Aty announced the completion of an annual report which highlights the results of the early stages of the feasibility studies. Egypt signed a feasibility studies contract with a German-Belgian international consultancy office, using $650,000 in funding from the African Development Bank, after having completed a pre-feasibility study in May 2015, which cost $500,000.

    The 12 billion USD line originally incorporated nine countries: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt. Despite political strife with Egypt over its Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia decided in January to jump aboard the project.

    The Egyptian government and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEDPAD), the technical body of the African Union, launched the project in June 2013, with the idea to promote “intermodal” transport by integrating river, rail and road transport facilities along the Nile Corridor and to develop river management capacity.

    “This project will boost economic development in the Nile Corridor by increasing trade and regional integration, as well as the transport of goods and people,” NEPAD states.

    Intermodal transport integration will include sections along the Trans-Africa Highway (Cape Town–Cairo, Lagos-Mombasa, Dakar-Ndjamena-Djibouti and Cairo-Dakar), various railway lines, as well as the big harbours in Alexandria, Suez Canal, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, indicates the NEPAD website.

    Egypt has listed a number of potential project components, including supporting economic development in the Nile Basin by raising the level of trade and transport of goods and people, constructing a navigational line connecting Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea through the Nile River, and establishing river navigation management training centres in some of the footprint states “based on the Egyptian experience”.

    Phase one of the project will comprise the section from Lake Albert in Uganda to Khartoum in Sudan, the section from Gambeila in Ethiopia to the White Nile in South Sudan, and the section from Khartoum in Sudan to Aswan in Egypt. Phase two will comprise the section from Lake Victoria to Lake Albert, both in Uganda, and the section between the Blue Nile Basin in Ethiopia and the Main Nile in Sudan.

    (egyptianstreets.com)