{"id":550296,"date":"2022-10-23T03:36:05","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T03:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2022\/10\/23\/this-morning-its-economic-conference-week\/"},"modified":"2022-10-23T03:36:05","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T03:36:05","slug":"this-morning-its-economic-conference-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2022\/10\/23\/this-morning-its-economic-conference-week\/","title":{"rendered":"THIS MORNING: It\u2019s economic conference week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning, wonderful people, and welcome to what promises to be a very busy week <\/strong>on the economic policy front <\/strong>as politicians, cabinet members and folks from industry associations gear up for three big events ahead of COP27.<\/p>\n

It starts today with the Madbouly governments Egypt Economic Conference 2022<\/strong>, which runs through Tuesday and will see heavy presence from members of the cabinet economic group. It\u2019s still not clear to us who is attending from the private sector who doesn\u2019t also hold a position at an industry association or chamber of commerce.<\/p>\n

Are you attending? We\u2019d love it if you plugged our <\/strong>five-step recipe for how to build a new<\/a><\/strong>Egyptian economy<\/a><\/strong> that puts FDI and exports at the heart of everything we do.<\/p>\n

Focus is key: <\/strong>Technical committees associated with today\u2019s conference are weighing some 480 proposals (we kid you not). The various sub-committees of the National Dialogue have sent in a barrel of questions of their own, on everything from inflation to the budget deficit. Folks, we need to focus. The government cannot be all things to all industries, and this conference is NOT the forum to bemoan L\/Cs vs documentary collection, how far the EGP will need to fall against the greenback, or any of our other current problems.<\/p>\n

Those issues are not what ails us \u2014 they\u2019re symptoms of the real problem: Our failure <\/strong>to build an economy that prioritizes exports and FDI <\/strong>while simultaneously harnessing the power of the Arab world\u2019s largest consumer market.<\/p>\n

Lamees agrees<\/strong>:<\/strong> Kelma Akhira\u2019s Lamees El Hadidi urged last night that we use the conference to set out clear, focused, measurable, and realistic goals for the economy (watch, runtime: 6:29<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to focus. We need to have clear goals, and a clear path to achieve them,\u201d <\/strong>says El Hadidi. \u201cWe can\u2019t export everything, we can\u2019t open every topic\u2026 If we decide to focus on industry, we need to choose a limited group of industries\u2026 five or six industries at most, [and say] these are the priorities, the ones we\u2019ll support.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re attending, drop us a note later today by replying to this email <\/strong>and let us know how things are going or email patrick@enterprisemea.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

^^ We have the inside track on what you can expect from the event in this morning\u2019s news well, below.<\/p>\n

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ALSO TODAY- Egypt plays host to the annual <\/strong>Gas Exporting Countries Forum<\/a><\/strong> meetings:<\/strong> Ministers from the 19 member countries as well as eight observer nations are in Cairo for the next three days for the annual meetings of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why this matters: <\/strong>Egypt has been positioning itself for some years now as the premier energy hub in the Eastern Mediterranean, serving as a hub for natural gas and electricity exports to Europe, the Levant, GCC, Sudan and North Africa. Throw in the energy war between Russia and Europe and things look very interesting right now.<\/p>\n

MEANWHILE- Egypt and the UAE will <\/strong>host a gathering<\/a><\/strong> marking 50 years of bilateral ties.<\/strong> The conference takes place Wednesday-Friday (26-28 October) and is being produced in association with the two governments. Day one is an economic forum featuring ministers, senior officials and business leaders from the two countries<\/strong>, while the following day will feature a cultural forum.<\/p>\n

AND- The Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) will <\/strong>launch a promotional campaign<\/a><\/strong> ahead of <\/strong>COP27<\/strong> on potential investments in the zone. The domestic campaign will be launched today before the international campaign kicks off tomorrow.<\/p>\n

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THERE\u2019S NO SIGN THIS MORNING of an IMF facility. <\/strong>The IMF executive board\u2019s public agenda page hasn\u2019t been updated since before the IMF \/ World Bank annual meetings earlier this month. A senior government official said last week that Egypt expected the announcement would come \u201cquickly.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

EGP WATCH- <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the absence of an IMF package, speculation on the \u201creal value\u201d of the EGP continues <\/strong>apace. <\/strong>Reuters<\/a> is the latest to join the party, with a poll of economists predicting the EGP will ease to 21.16 to the USD by the end of the current fiscal year next June and 22.08 by the end of FY 2023-2024. That\u2019s a faster pace than in the news organization\u2019s July poll, when respondents forecast 19.86 to the USD by the end of FY 2023-2024. Reuters poll was carried out 10-19 October.<\/p>\n

Others see a bigger drop:<\/strong> Enterprise readers<\/a> are, on average, using 22.12 in their 2023 budgets. Goldman Sachs said last month that most folks it spoke with see the EGP settling<\/a> somewhere between 22-24 to the greenback once an IMF package is in place.<\/p>\n

Where do we stand now? <\/strong>The greenback was changing hands at EGP 19.7284 on Thursday. The EGP has lost a little more than a quarter of its value against the greenback this year, including March\u2019s steep devaluation.<\/p>\n

enterprise<\/a><\/p>\n

COUNTDOWN TO COP (13 days to go)- <\/strong><\/p>\n

We have just under two weeks to go<\/strong> before COP27 kicks off in Sharm El Sheikh.<\/p>\n

A rare bit of good climate news: Global CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels <\/strong>are forecast to rise by less than 1% this year <\/strong>thanks to the strong push into renewables and electric vehicles, according to the International Energy Agency<\/a>. Emissions are set to rise by only 300 mn tons in 2022 to 33.8 bn tons \u2014 a much smaller jump than the 2 bn-ton increase last year, the organization said in a report.<\/p>\n

The African Development Bank will unveil at COP27 a USD 1.5 bn green facility to <\/strong>help African countries develop clean energy<\/strong> and adapt infrastructure to handle the effects of global warming, the bank\u2019s principal climate officer told Bloomberg<\/a>. The bank will offer the funding to climate-related projects through partnerships with commercial banks and governments. The lender plans to raise USD 100 mn by the end of next year, and the full USD 1.5 bn by the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

UK Minister for Africa Gillian Keegan was in town last week for talks ahead of COP27<\/strong>, meeting with Foreign Minister and COP27 President Sameh Shoukry<\/a> and Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker<\/a> on the sidelines of Cairo Water Week, the UK Foreign Office said<\/a>.<\/p>\n