{"id":650314,"date":"2017-03-21T03:59:30","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T03:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2017\/03\/21\/egypt-in-the-news-on-21-march-2017\/"},"modified":"2017-03-21T03:59:30","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T03:59:30","slug":"egypt-in-the-news-on-21-march-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2017\/03\/21\/egypt-in-the-news-on-21-march-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt in the news on 21 March 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hurghada seems to have been the main beneficiary of Sharm El Sheikh being off-sale in the UK<\/strong>, Rob Gill writes for tourism news website TTG<\/a>. Andrew Grant, managing director of Red Sea Holidays, says: \u201cHolidays for Hurghada, particularly the Makadi Bay area, are showing healthy increases in passenger numbers \u2014 the market is reporting an increase of 35%... Price has certainly been a contributor to the surge in sales, as popular resorts in Spain are demanding significant increases in prices.\u201d Hope for a revival in Sharm El Sheikh has not been lost either as \u201csome specialist operators to the Red Sea are optimistic that the FCO will soon change its advice on Sharm\u2019s airport \u2014 Discover Egypt has even decided to include Sharm as a twin-centre option in its new brochure in anticipation that Britons will soon be able to fly to the resort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could US President Donald Trump\u2019s USAID budget cuts affect economic development aid <\/strong>to Egypt? <\/strong>While it remains unclear, the fear of that happening is definitely there, Ben Barber writes in the HuffPost<\/a>. \u201cThe good news is that it won\u2019t really hurt many in Egypt,\u201d Barber says. Civilian aid to Egypt was cut from USD 900 mn in 2003 to USD 150 mn in 2015, which means the US gives Egypt about \u201cUSD 1.50 per Egyptian per year in aid.\u201d Passage of any cuts isn\u2019t a sure thing: Congress could refuse them, powerful US farmer lobbies could rally against them, and the pro-Israeli lobby \u201cseeking a stable and strong neighbor\u201d could also push the Trump administration into leaving Egypt\u2019s development aid alone.<\/p>\n

The greatest threat to the politically- and economically-fragile Egypt\u2019s stability is not <\/strong>Daesh and armed militants but its fast growing population, <\/strong>which rose from 66 mn in the early 2000s to nearly 93 mn this year, according to Peter Schwartzstein writing for Newsweek\u2019s European edition<\/a>. With the country \u201cin the throes of food and water shortages,\u201d authorities need to shift their focus from \u201creal and perceived\u201d security threats to rethink their population control strategies, <\/strong>which had been effective until state support for family-planning initiatives was curbed in 2008-09 and NGOs began allocating resources to other projects.<\/p>\n

The developments in former President Hosni Mubarak\u2019s trial are \u201ca reflection of <\/strong>the continued political chaos and people\u2019s growing ambivalence about liberal democracy in the Middle East,\u201d<\/strong> Simon Shen writes for Hong Kong portal EJ Insight<\/a>. Shen believes \u201cthe continued political turbulence and poor economy since 2011 have led to widespread disillusionment with democracy among the Egyptian people, and many Egyptians are once again looking to another political strongman like Mubarak to restore order and stability to society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other mentions of Egypt worth a skim:<\/p>\n