Therapy with chatbots

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

THIS EVENING: CIB shares on a tear + Some of the self-employed don’t have to get on the e-invoicing system

Good afternoon, wonderful people, and a very happy THURSDAY to us all. While any Thursday is a happy occasion, this one is particularly sweet as we slide into a four-day weekend in observance of Coptic Easter on Sunday and Sham El Nessim on Monday.

That means EnterprisePM will be off next Sunday and Monday — but we’ll be back in your inboxes at the usual time on Tuesday.

We’ll all be back to work on Tuesday and Wednesday before breaking again for another long weekend for Eid El Fitr and Sinai Liberation Day. The Central Bank of Egypt confirmed today the nation’s banks will close their doors from Thursday, 20 April until Tuesday, 25 April and will resume operating as of Wednesday, 26 April. Cabinet has already confirmed the holiday for public sector workers.

ALSO- Ramses II is doing okay: The statue of King Ramses II inside the Grand Hall of the Grand Egyptian Museum is not at risk of being affected by rainfall that leaked into the hall, the Tourism Ministry said in a statement. The statement came after videos circulated on social media and WhatsApp groups showing this week’s showers leaking through the museum’s ceiling.

** SO, WHEN DO WE EAT? We’ll be breaking our fasts at 6:21pm CLT today. You have until 4:00am tomorrow morning to hydrate and grab a bite to eat.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY

#1- Lawyers, pharmacists, and doctors get their way with the e-invoicing system: Self-employed individuals — including lawyers, pharmacists, and doctors — who exclusively work directly with the end consumer or customer are no longer required to register with the Egyptian Tax Authority’s e-invoicing system, according to a statement. However, self-employed individuals will need to register with the system if they do business with other entities that are required to operate under the e-invoicing system, the statement notes. The decision comes after widespread opposition to e-invoicing.

#2- CIB shares are on a tear: EGX30 heavyweight CIB saw its shares soar 14.5% today, pushing up the index to close 5.5% up. The EGX30 year-to-date return is now 21.1%, putting it in bull market territory.

THE BIG STORIES ABROAD

The realignment: Iran officially re-opened its embassy in Saudi Arabia yesterday, Reuters reports.The move was coordinated last month when officials from the two countries met in Chinain a watershed moment to resume diplomatic ties in talks brokered by Beijing after a 7-year political deadlock. The Saudis will also be reopening their embassy in Tehran. The relationship between the two countries had soured over the Yemen war, alleged attacks on oil facilities, and the execution of a Shi’ite cleric by the Kingdom.

Qatari-Bahrain relations are also getting restored,Reuters also reported. Diplomatic links are thawing after a large numbers of countries in the region — including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — had a falling-out with the peninsular country over its support of Islamist movements in 2017. The story is getting ink in the international press: Euronews | AP News | DW | France 24

ALSO- Italy’s business elite gets a shake up: Some of Italy’s biggest state-controlled enterprises have new leadership as the country’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni revamps sectors ranging from energy to defense, reports Bloomberg. Of the three most significant company roles in the country, only Claudio Descalzi, CEO of oil giant Eni, will continue another three years in his role, while state-controlled energy and defense companies Enel and Leonardo will both see new leadership. The restructuring comes as Europe realigns its priorities on the back of limited gas supplies and military rearmament as the war in Ukraine rages on.

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

AfricInvest eyes 25% stake in BUE: Private equity firm AfricInvest is looking to acquire 25% of the British University of Egypt (BUE) for more than EGP 1 bn before the end of June.
House gives initial nod to amendments to nationality law that could drum up more FX: MPs yesterday gave its preliminary approval to amendments to the nationality law that will make it easier for foreigners to become Egyptian citizens.
Elsewedy partners with Qatari contractor on Libya power plant: Elsewedy Electric and major Qatari contractor UCC Holding have signed an EPC contract with the Libyan General Electricity Company to build a 1.0k MW power plant in Libya.

The Enterprise Exports & FDI Forum, our latest industry-specific conference, is taking place on Monday, 15 May at Four Seasons, Nile Plaza. The Enterprise Exports & FDI Forum will give insiders and newcomers alike the chance to talk about how to develop an export-centered business and how their companies can help us build an export-led economy that makes us a magnet for foreign direct investment (FDI).

What’s the Enterprise Exports & FDI Forum? In the wake of successive floats of EGP, exports and FDI have never been more important to our economy — or our businesses. We’re gathering some of the CEOs, top execs from local companies and multinationals, investors, bankers and finance folks to speak on how businesses can adapt their strategies to be export-oriented and what we as a country can do to draw foreign investment and much-needed FX. Expect it to be heavy on lessons learned in Egypt and other global growth markets — and lots of success stories.You can learn more on our conference website here.

Some of the biggest names in business and finance are on board — are you? If you’re a C-suite exec, business owner, DFI staff, export executive, investor or banker, please fill out the form here to signal your interest, letting us know your name, title and where you work.

WANT TO BECOME A COMMERCIAL PARTNER? Ping a note to Moustafa, our head of commercial, here.

🗓 CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

We’re heading into a stretch of holidays:

Banks and the EGX will be off next Sunday, 16 April to mark Coptic Easter (the day is not a public holiday);
We’re all off next Monday, 17 April to mark Sham El Nessim;
Public sector workers are off from Thursday, 20 April until Tuesday, 25 April in observance of Sinai Liberation Day and Eid El Fitr. Expect the Manpower Ministry and the EGX to follow up with their own announcements in the coming days.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Plan a picnic — we’re getting some warm, sunny weather over the long weekend: The mercury is going to be rising incrementally this weekend, starting with a daytime high of 28°C tomorrow, which will climb to 31°C on Saturday, 33°C on Sunday, and a rather warm 36°C on Monday. The evenings will remain pleasantly cool — our weather app tells us to expect nighttime lows of 16°C tomorrow and Saturday, 19°C on Sunday, and 20°C on Monday.

Is Tupperware about to go bust? Plus: The Middle East beckons for Silicon Valley tech investors

Is the knife falling on a revolutionary kitchen staple? Shares in global brand Tupperware plummeted this week, prompting fears that without a liquidity injection the household icon could go bust, reports the BBC. The company saw a brief reprieve in sales of their air- and water-tight containers during the covid-19 pandemic as more households spent time cooking and baking at home, but the share price rise was only temporary. And with an easily copied product, Tupperware has been unable to keep up with competition in a market that has been flooded with cheaper alternatives — nor has the brand shown a willingness for innovations that would help grow and maintain its customer base. Yet, as a brand whose name has outstripped its product, Tupperware could be attractive to retail giants, like Amazon, with the ability to inject funds rapidly.

Despite inspired a cultural revolution, Tupperware is going out of fashion: Created during the 1950s and 1960s, Tupperware harnessed housewives to sell its products through parties that glamorized dull housework, says Alison Clarke, author of Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America. At that time, containers could only be bought if you knew someone selling them, making the products and parties exclusive, and hosting Tupperware parties gave a source of employment to women with little access to flexible labor. The scheme was retired in 2003, but the brand has done little in terms of further innovation to the plastic containers, which are now at odds with a new market of young consumers, looking for more environmentally-friendly products.

The Middle East beckons: Silicon Valley tech investors are pursuing the region’s sovereign wealth funds to fill the financing gap, the Financial Times reported. As American and European financiers are reeling from the worst financial crisis in a decade, there’s growing appetite for tech investments in countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar who are actively pursuing economic diversification. “We came to San Francisco looking for them in 2017. Now … everyone is coming to [us],” Ibrahim Ajami, the head of ventures at Mubadala Capital — the USD 6 bn arm of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund — was quoted as saying.

KSA’s spending spree: Sanabil, the venture arm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), has partnered with nearly 40 venture firms in the US including Coatue Management and Craft Ventures. In 2016 alone, PIF invested USD 45 bn in the USD 100 bn SoftBank Vision Fund and USD 3.5 bn in Uber. In 2018, it shelled out another USD 1 bn on electric vehicle (EV) company Lucid Motors. But that investment cooperation came to an abrupt halt when politics got in the way in 2018 after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Money talks: After a boom in the industry during covid-19, the subsequent drying up of funds in the West has significantly altered the course of investments. Over the past year, VC funding for start-ups has decreased by more than 50%, prompting Silicon Valley to mend its ties with KSA.

Now, the kingdom is being heralded as a “start-up country” by Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of Private VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, whose ties with the Kingdom have been warming lately.

And more is yet to come: The region is expected to “become an increasingly important area of the world over the next decade. It reminds us of going to China in 2003,” Tiger Global’s Scott Shleifer was quoted as saying.

Sour Grapes: Defrauding the wine industry for USD mns

📺 ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

Leaves a bitter taste: In the early 2000s, Rudy Kurniawan defrauded the wine industry with countless bottles of fake wine. His scam and ultimate incarceration is retold in the satisfyingly cynical documentary, Sour Grapes, an unempathetic look at the spending habits of the overly affluent. At one time Kurniawan was the golden boy of the wine industry, said to be living off a large family fortune, with a palate adept at identifying the finest of wines. For years he pocketed USD mns by selling at auction “fine” wines he had discovered. Unbeknownst to his customers, the liquor they purchased was cheap wine, repackaged in old bottles with forged labels. To this day, celebrated wine collectors may hold counterfeit bottles in their carefully curated wine cellars, thanks to Kuniawan’s scheme. Sour Grapes is available on Apple TV or for rent on Amazon Prime Video.

Saturday will also see Real Madrid’s away game against Cadiz in La Liga’s matchday 29 at 9pm. The match will be critical for Real Madrid, which is trailing behind Barcelona — currently at the top of La Liga — with a 13-point difference. Will its showdown against Cadiz be a chance to narrow that delta or will Real Madrid give Barcelona an early chance to claim the league title?

Other La Liga matches on Saturday:

Villareal v Valladolid (2pm)
Athletic Club v Real Sociedad (4:15pm)
Real Betis v Espanyol (6:30pm)

And the most important matches in the major European leagues on Saturday:

Bologna v Milan (Serie A— 3pm)
Bayern Munich v Hoffenheim (Bundesliga — 3:30pm)
Stuttgart v Dortmund (Bundesliga — 3:30pm)
Napoli v Verona (Serie A — 6pm)
Inter v Monza (Serie A — 8:45pm)
Paris Saint-German v Lens (Ligue 1 — 9pm)

Calling all fans of Lebanese food — head to Loris for iftar or sohour, complete with a fix of Lebanese desserts:Loris brings all our Levantine favorites to Galleria 40 in Sheikh Zayed — and it’s good enough to make the trip worthwhile if you’re not a Zayed resident. Their iftar menu includes classic appetizers like tabbouleh, fattoush salad, and warak enab, as well as cheese pastrami rolls and soujouk. We particularly enojyed the kebbe. Round out the meal by indulging in the soft pillowy halawet jebn, or slice through an indulgent maamoul with cheese. You can also feast on the traditional dessert qateyef with a twist as they stuff their with Nutella and strawberry. Be sure to get your table early as the Ramadan ambience and fresh air at Loris usually packs a crowd.

Learn more about popular Egyptian folk sayings at a unique location this Saturday at 8pm in MASQ - Maq’ad of Sultan Qaitbey. Through storytelling with Nesma Medhat, a director, author, and founder of several projects focused on reviving Egyptian folklore, you will be guided through Egyptian heritage using a unique method.

Have a laugh at BigBang’s stand-up comedy night at Room Art Space and Cafe in New Cairo this Saturday at 8:30pm with the performance starting at 9pm. For more details about the line-up and tickets check out their Facebook event page.

Catch Irtigalia on Sunday, 16 April for a night of improvisation at Room Art Space and Cafewhere the Irtigalia performers take their direction from you, the audience. To book tickets check out their event pagefor more information.

The Iliad of the Arabs: El Warsha Theater Troupe will perform, through storytelling and singing, the Epic of Beni Helal, which recounts the story of a Bedouin tribe as it migrates from the Arab peninsula westwards across the Sahara Desert to escape drought. The show is taking place next Wednesday, 19 April, at 8:30pm at Tahrir Cultural Center.

Expose yourself to some art and culture and walk around central Cairo: Qahrawya are organizing two separate “iftour” (iftar tour) events this month, which entail an art walking tour after sitting down for iftar together. The second tour is taking place in downtown Cairo on Saturday, 22 April, starting at 5:30pm.

Stephen Fry’s The Great Leap Years is an amicable and cunning re-telling of mankind’s inventions that is sure to tickle your ears, turn on a mental lightbulb, and tease out a chuckle of relatability. From Johannes Gutenberg to YouTube, let Fry take you on this heavily researched podcast and inform you of often overlooked connections to the innovations that surround you. His tongue-in-cheek approach will bring you insights on (among others) the plague, Napoleon, and the International Business Machine (better known to us as IBM) and their role in technological innovation and our world as we know it.

The House is on Fire: Rachel Beanland’s work of historical fiction is inspired by the true events that took place in Richmond, Virginia in the early 1800s. The story unfolds when, the night after Christmas, a theater — packed with people celebrating the festive season — goes up in flames, claiming dozens of lives. The previously separate lives of Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert suddenly intertwine through their different connections to the theater. The novel centers on issues of race and how tragedy often brings out the best — and sometimes also the worst — in people.

What the markets are doing on 13 April, 2023

The EGX30 rose 5.6% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.7 bn. Local investors were net sellers. The index is up 21.1% YTD.

In the green: CIB (+14.5%), Oriental Weavers (+6.9%) and Telecom Egypt (+4.0%).

In the red: Orascom Construction (-1.8%), Rameda Pharma (-1.4%) and CIRA Education (-1.3%).

Chatbots are taking on the role of therapists — but it’s not without major drawbacks

Another AI debate arises: Therapy via chatbot could be a thing, according to the BBC. In 2013, Joaquin Phoenix fell in love with Her, aka Samantha, a virtual assistant much like Siri and Alexa. But what was once a far-fetched sci-fi movie is now looking much more realistic as intimacy and even trust between humans and artificial intelligence systems is not only at the doorstep, but deeply embedded within several people’s lives.

What’s the issue? Over 1 bn people around the world suffer from mental disorders, according to the World Health Organization. And yet, not everyone has access to help. Whether this is due to social stigma, the hefty price of sessions, or other hindrances, many people remain isolated without often vital support. This is where AI promises to help.

All those in favor: When certain circumstances make therapy a luxury rather than a necessary tool for comfort and wellbeing, it is difficult to snub the technology that could bridge the gap. After all, “mental health support is based on talking therapy, and talking is what chatbots do,” British Psychological Society member Paul Marsden is quoted as saying. In some cases — like with children and adults suffering from autism — the chatbots can be used to practice social scenarios, according to “chatbot companion” Replika’s founder Eugenia Kuyda.

All those against: Things get a little more complicated when we consider that, as they exit education and entertainment and enter the realm of health, these products ought to be “subject to quality and safety standards accordingly,” a UK online privacy campaigner tells the BBC. Concerns about safety and ethics arise and must be addressed before they incur unpredictable damage to already vulnerable users.

What about boundaries? There remain questions and concerns about what to do when conversations become inappropriate with younger patients, or those who are at higher risk of being negatively affected by incorrect handling or guidance. Last February, Italy banned Replika for accessing users’ data to protect “minors and emotionally fragile people” as conversations with chatbots lack oversight and parental guidance.

Does chatting really fix things? Therapy doesn’t exclusively rely on speaking — factors like tone and body language can be key for therapists and medical professionals in identifying and remedying issues. Consequently, therapy through bots should only be seen as a supplement to traditional mental support methods as “apps don't replace human therapy,” Marsden said. Also, exclusively online conversations can feel more isolating if users begin to prioritize AI chats at the expense of in-person communication. Coupled with pervasive addiction to screens, leading to greater detachment, overuse and misuse of these apps can become seriously problematic.

Countless questions and more to come:The rise of AI and systems like Chat GPT is so revolutionary, it has already spurred countless debates and controversies in a short span of time. From concerns about replacing people and wiping out jobs to changing intellectual property rights, it seems we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg as a barrage of queries are yet to emerge as the technology becomes more sophisticated. While the technology presents tremendous potential, users must bear in mind that the long-term social, psychological, and even political and economic repercussions are yet to be known and understood.

THE ENTERPRISE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

APRIL

14 April (Friday): Hazem Shaheen concert at 9pm, Rawabet Art Space.

14 April (Friday): Egyptian Project live performance at 9pm, Skas Restaurant, El Obour.

15 April (Saturday): Nesma Medhat folk storytelling performance at 8pm, Maq’ad of Sultan Qaitbey.

15 April (Saturday): BigBang stand-up comedy night at 8:30pm, Room Art Space and Café.

16 April (Sunday): Coptic Easter — banking holiday.

16 April (Sunday): Irtigalia improv performance at 9pm, Room Art Space and Café.

17 April (Monday): Sham El Nessim.

20-25 April (Thursday-Tuesday): National holiday in observance of Eid El Fitr and Sinai Liberation Day.

21-26 April (Friday-Wednesday): LaLiga Egypt Football Camp, Xanadu Hotel, Makadi Bay, Hurghada.

22 April (Saturday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

22 April (Saturday): Iftour iftar and Downtown tour 5:30pm, Downtown Cairo.

25 April (Tuesday): Sinai Liberation Day.

MAY

1 May (Monday): Labor Day.

1 May (Monday): Backstreet Boys at 7pm, ZED East, New Cairo.

4 May (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Labor Day (TBC).

6-20 May (Saturday-Saturday): Film Society Festival for Egyptian Cinema.

12-15 May (Friday-Monday): Egypt Fashion Week.

JUNE

10 June (Saturday): Thanaweya Amma examinations begin.

28 June-2 July (Wednesday-Sunday): Eid El Adha (TBC).

30 June (Friday): June 30 Revolution Day.

JULY

18 July (Tuesday): Islamic New Year.

20 July (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Islamic New Year (TBC).

23 July (Sunday): Revolution Day.

27 July (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Revolution Day.

SEPTEMBER

26 September (Tuesday): Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

28 September (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

OCTOBER

6 October (Friday): Armed Forces Day.13 October- 20 October (Friday-Friday): The sixth edition of El Gouna Film Festival (GFF).

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2023: The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum.

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THIS EVENING: CIB shares on a tear + Some of the self-employed don’t have to get on the e-invoicing system

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What the markets are doing on 13 April, 2023

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Chatbots are taking on the role of therapists — but it’s not without major drawbacks

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