{"id":568926,"date":"2020-02-09T04:15:55","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T04:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2020\/02\/09\/what-were-tracking-on-9-february-2020\/"},"modified":"2020-02-09T04:15:55","modified_gmt":"2020-02-09T04:15:55","slug":"what-were-tracking-on-9-february-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2020\/02\/09\/what-were-tracking-on-9-february-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"What we\u2019re tracking on 9 February 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

A slow news weekend has given way to a very busy week <\/strong>in which regulators (kicking the tires on at least three M&A) and legislators (talking terrorism, taxes, social insurance and pensions) are set to be the top newsmakers.<\/p>\n

Is a GERD agreement by the end of February within reach?<\/strong> Officials from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia are due to review a final agreement when they meet in Washington, DC, this Wednesday and Thursday (12-13 February) ahead of what could be an end-of-month signing, according to media reports. Ethiopia\u2019s water minister says that US-led mediation in DC in recent days has \u201csolved the main disputes,\u201d Asharq Al-Awsat reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is in Addis Ababa today for an <\/strong>African Union summit<\/a><\/strong>,<\/a>an Ittihadiya statement said yesterday<\/a>. El Sisi will hand over the chairmanship of the AU to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the gathering's heads of states assembly, which runs today through tomorrow. El Sisi spoke to the AU\u2019s peace and security council (which was discussing Libya) and addressed the African Peer Review Mechanism agency (see transcripts of the speeches here<\/a> and here<\/a> in Arabic). El Sisi also met with Algerian President <\/strong>Abdelmadjid Tebboune<\/a><\/strong> and Canadian Prime Minister <\/strong>Justin Trudeau<\/a><\/strong> in the Ethiopian capital yesterday.<\/p>\n

\n

German Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Gerd Muller is in Egypt<\/strong> to discuss water and renewable energy issues, the German Embassy in Cairo said in a statement<\/a> on Thursday. The minister visited the Benban solar facility<\/a> and the Aswan High Dam<\/a> over the weekend.<\/p>\n

MPs are still lobbying for lower energy prices for industry: <\/strong>The House Industry Committee will meet today with Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker to push for lower electricity prices to factories after calls by the Egyptian Federation of Investors Associations, parliamentary sources said<\/a>. The government formed a committee last year<\/a> to meet every six months to revise the price at which the government sells natural gas and electricity to factories. The committee last met in October, when it lowered natgas prices by up to 25% for three types of factories.<\/p>\n

MPs will mull expanding anti-terror legislation to cover media outlets <\/strong>when they meet today in general assembly, state-owned Ahram Online<\/a> reports. Amendments to a 2015 law on how the state defines and lists terror organizations could see \u201ctelevision channels (audio, visual or print), as well as radio stations, social media accounts which are established by individuals, companies, institutions, gangs, cells or others regardless of their legal or real form\u201d included on the list of terrorist entities.<\/p>\n

The executive regulations for the Social Security and Pensions Act will be <\/strong>unveiled in a few days<\/strong>, head of the Social Security Fund Sami Abdel Hadi said at the end of last week<\/a>. Hadi said<\/a> that under the regulations people will begin receiving their pensions via Meeza cards rather than their current pension cards. Read our breakdown of how the country\u2019s new pension fund will work <\/strong>here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

FEDCOC, ECMA stamp tax meeting pushed to Wednesday:<\/strong> The Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce\u2019s securities division and the Egyptian Capital Markets Association (ECMA) have postponed until Wednesday a meeting between key stakeholders to discuss reforming capital gains tax and stamp tax on EGX transactions. The meeting was originally scheduled to be held today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a> The government is working on a new plan to control population growth:<\/strong> Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly on Thursday told ministers<\/a> to come up with a new strategy to curb Egypt\u2019s accelerating population growth as the number of Egyptians in the country surpasses 100 mn this month. The Social Solidarity Ministry had launched in 2018<\/a> the EGP 100 mn \u201cTwo is Enough\u201d family planning program, which was designed to curtail the country\u2019s birth rate.<\/p>\n

Events taking place this week:<\/strong><\/p>\n