Good afternoon, friends, and welcome to what seems to be a slow start of the week on the news front.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Polaris Parks to invest EGP 10.5 bn to develop two major industrial parks: Industrial real estate developer Polaris Parks has signed agreements with Industry and Transport Minister Kamel El Wazir over developing two major industrial parks in Egypt, with the company having allocated EGP 10.5 bn for the projects, General Manager Bassel Shoirah told Al Arabiya Business. The first was an MoU for a park in the New Administrative Capital, and the second was a contract for an industrial park in New October City — with the projects set to host a total of 1k factories and create 50k jobs, the company said in a press release.

The announcement comes just days after President Abdel Fattah El Sisi made his firstofficial visit to Turkey, in which the agreements for the project were signed. El Sisi’s visit saw the signing of 18 MoUs, as the two countries seek to deepen cooperation across a number of different sectors.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

All eyes are on the size of the Fed’s anticipated rate cut: While the US Federal Reserve is poised to start cutting interest rates at its upcoming 17-18 September meeting, the debate still lingers over the appropriate pace and magnitude of cuts following another month of cooler-than-expected jobs data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report (pdf) released on Friday showed that employers added 142k jobs in August, leaving the three-month average at the lowest since mid-2020. Some officials, including Fed Chair Jay Powell, are considering more aggressive cuts to maintain economic expansion, while other officials are penciling in a 25 bps rate cut, KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk told Bloomberg.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

  • The long-awaited electricity rate hikes are here: Capping off a busy summer of subsidy reform, the Electricity Ministry has published the electricity price hikes that will see prices rise by 14-40% across the board, with higher consuming households seeing the highest increase.
  • Egypt’s LNG imports extend through winter. Egypt has issued one of the country’s largest ever tenders for 20 shipments of liquified natural gas. A government source told Enterprise that it is likely that new tenders will be issued in 1Q 2025.
  • Egypt inks over USD 1.1 bn worth of agreements and MoUs at Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. The agreements include a host of new industrial facilities in the SCZone, and investments in the telecommunications sector.

enterprise

*** It’s Inside Industry day — your weekly briefing of all things industrial in Egypt. Inside Industry focuses each Sunday on what it takes to turn Egypt into a manufacturing and export powerhouse, ranging from initial investment and planning to product distribution, through to land allocation to industrial processes, supply chain management, labor, automation and technology, inputs and exports, regulation and policy.

In today’s issue: We take a first look at the first phase of the Egypt Digital Industrial Platform, which launched at the beginning of this month.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER-The mercury is creeping up again tomorrow in Cairo with a high of 35°C before simmering to a low of 25°C by night, according to our favorite weather app.

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