Hi Did ISIS affect Egypt economically?

Hi Did ISIS affect Egypt economically?

The MENA-region suffered a $35 billion loss due to the Syrian war and the emergence and spread of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

In a recent report entitled “Economic Effects of the Syrian War and the Spread of the Islamic State on the Levant”, the World Bank Group looks at how countries in the region were economically affected by the happenings in their neighboring countries.

Ever since the crises spread, the inflows of refugees boost population numbers in neighboring countries, which aggregates consumption, investment and labor supply. 

Syria and Iraq lost 14% and 16% in their per capita warfare as direct war costs. Lebanon’s per capita welfare losses are largest and reach close to 11%, while those of Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan do not surpass 1.5%, due to the low percentage of refugees amongst the population.

However, the number of refugees is not the only problem facing these countries. The Levant countries were embarking on a process of regional trade integration right before the war started – and after it broke out, the benefits of this integration went to waste, which brings the total cost of the war on Egypt to 10% of its GDP due to trade disintegration.

Hence, the economic effect is there; however, Egypt remains one of the least affected countries in the region.

Hi What to do with Egypt's Informal Economy?

Hi What to do with Egypt's Informal Economy?

The rise of the informal economy is an outcome of a set of non-inclusive policies adopted during the Mubarak era.

Despite its significance, the informal economy seems to be overlooked in public discussions over future economic reform in Egypt. Informality is a predominant feature of private entrepreneurship in the vast majority of developing economies in total output, employment, and the number of economic enterprises. The percentage of the informal activities in Egypt is estimated to be 40-60 % according to a study by the center for International Private Enterprise. The informal economy is regarded as the economic unit which does not adhere partially or totally to the enforcement of official procedures. These procedures are license to exercise activities, trade or industrial registration, social insurance coverage, and payment of taxes on economic activities based on regular auditing.

Informal employment status refers to employees of informal enterprises as well as wage employment in formal enterprises, households, or those with no fixed employer, who are not covered by social security and/or have no contract. Informal employment includes all remunerative work both self-employment and wage employment that is not recognized, regulated, or protected by existing legal or regulatory frameworks and non-remunerative work undertaken in an income-producing enterprise.

Notwithstanding its massive share of employment in Egypt, the informal economy is characterized by the low skills of its workers, its labor-intensive nature, low productivity, access to markets, scanty wages and limited potential for growth and collaboration with the formal sector. Moreover, informal enterprises are often family-owned business that provides income or safety net for its members. Since they are not part of the formal economy and lack official accounts, informal enterprises do not pay taxes and are not subject to audits.

Informal employment has several drawbacks for workers: lack of job security, lack of social security coverage (including access to health care and pensions), and lack of rights, to name just a few. Also, women are discriminated against in that sector in both hiring and earnings. Yet, there are many reasons why people choose to enter the informal economy rather than secure a job in the formal sector. The low education level and proper training of many workers naturally excludes them from the formal sector. Additionally, the social and financial status of those unprivileged workers as well as their lack of connections contribute to their natural exclusion from the formal economy.

There are also deep institutional constraints that inhibit the formalization of the informal economy. Those entail lack of access to sufficient credit, limited access to technology and adequate infrastructure and a discouraging tax system. Moreover, workers in the informal economy are often discouraged by the web of complex bureaucratic regulations and procedures that they have to go through to start a formal business.

The existence of the phenomenon itself has several reasons too. The non-inclusive nature of economic growth in Egypt leads people to seek opportunities in the shadows of the formal sector. Furthermore, the lack of lucrative economic opportunities in rural areas in Egypt increases migration to urban centers and this consequently leads to an over demand on formal jobs in major cities that have a limited capacity to absorb this large influx of workers. Accordingly, an expansion of the informal sector and slums arise in the outskirts of the urban cities and in many cases in the city center itself. For instance, one easily observes the massive number of people selling low quality products on the streets of Cairo as well as many unlicensed enterprises that operate in the slums of the ancient city.

There is no one-size fits all strategy to combat this phenomenon. However, understanding the deep-rooted reasons of the phenomenon allows for a better policy recommendation. The government of Egypt has to play on a number of fronts in order to allow for the inclusion and enhancement of the status of formal workers. The government shall target the existing informal enterprises and provide incentives for them to formalize. The sort of incentives they might require is better working conditions, better access to markets, improved access to credit with very low collateral and access to better and affordable technology. This would be in exchange for their registration in the formal economy. The government can exempt those enterprises from taxes until they reach a certain threshold of growth and profitability. The government may also facilitate linkages between those enterprises and big formal businesses. Formal businesses may benefit from the cheap materials this sector supplies in exchange for training and teaching them better organizational techniques and methods to increase profitability and growth.

Policy makers in Egypt have to reduce the cost of entering the formal economy. Both the reduction and transparency of time-consuming and expensive bureaucratic procedures would be a great incentive for future informal entrepreneurs to formalize. The expansion of economic opportunities in rural Egypt can significantly contribute to lessening the rural-urban migration, which results in many informal and low wage jobs in urban centers. It is important that any strategy that targets the informal economy and the SME sector be devised based on a broad consultation with owners and workers as well as with students who will soon be looking for jobs. Large firms could also contribute to the debate with the aim of increasing interfirm linkages and subcontracting.

The rise of the informal economy is an outcome of a set of non-inclusive policies adopted during the Mubarak era. It is noteworthy to highlight that most poor people in Egypt are members of the informal economy. Hence, devising policies to improve the status of informal sector and its formalization is a quest for poverty alleviation and empowerment of the majority of Egyptians. What Egypt needs in the foreseeable future is a pro-poor growth strategy that realizes the importance of including the masses in the growth-generation process itself. The youth who started the revolution are asking for a change in their economic situation, and they are probably not willing to wait until the benefits of growth “trickle down” to reach them, they want to trigger growth themselves and utilize their innovative ideas to make their dreams come true.

Hi Mysterious 'Spellbook' From Ancient Egypt Decoded!!!

Hi Mysterious 'Spellbook' From Ancient Egypt Decoded!!!

The ancient book housed at Macquarie University.

A mysterious ancient book written in an Egyptian language called Coptic has puzzled researchers ever since it was first found as part of an extensive papyrus collection at Macquarie University in Australia in 1981.

But now, two Australian scientists say they've finally translated the 1,300-year-old text, and it turns out that the text is a book of spells, Live Science reported.

The mystery remains, however, as to who wrote the book and used the spells.

"Many such Coptic magical texts were copied or used within monastic communities, and the degree of ritual knowledge in the invocations makes clergy or monks logical candidates for their production," Dr. Malcolm Choat, director of the university's Ancient Cultures Research Center and one of the scientists who deciphered the ancient book, told The Huffington Post in an email. "But other ritual practitioners can be imagined, and of course the spells could have been cast on behalf of ordinary people who needed their problems solved."

Choat and his colleague Dr. Iain Gardner, a professor of religion at the University of Sydney, found that the text includes ritual instructions and a list of 27 spells intended to cure various ailments or to bring success in love and business.

"There are also spells for 'Someone who is possessed,' 'Someone who is annoyed at you,' 'That a woman might conceive,' 'When someone has a magic on them,'" Choat said in the email.

The language used in the ancient book suggests that it originally came from Upper Egypt, possibly near Hermopolis, an ancient town located near the Nile River.

The ancient text is now housed in the Museum of Ancient Cultures at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

Hi Egypt’s Top 5 Universities.

Hi Egypt’s Top 5 Universities.

QS University Rankings assessed the world’s top 3,000 universities, five of which could be found in Egypt.

The ranking is based on four pillars: research, teaching, employability and international outlook. The indicators that are used to determine each are academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international student ratio and international staff ratio. Each of these indicators weigh differently, as – for instance – academic reputation is weighed as 40% of the assessment, while international student ratio lies at only 5%.

According to QS University Rankings, Egypt’s top universities are:

1. American University in Cairo: Rank 360.

Whereas the American University in Cairo (AUC) precedes the other universities in terms of employer situation, faculty/student ratio, international faculty and citations per faculty, it does not top the others in the remaining indicators.

2. Cairo University: Rank between 551 and 600.

Cairo University comes in second, but tops the list in terms of academic reputation, and comes in second in employer reputation.

3. Ain Shams University: Rank above 701.

Ain Shams University comes in third overall, and also in employer reputation.

4. Al-Azhar University: Rank above 701.

Al-Azhar University comes at 4th place, but tops the indicator of international students.

5. Alexandria University: Rank above 701.

At fifth place comes Alexandria University, who also ranks fourth in terms of employer reputation.

Hi Egypt willing to send troops to future Palestine.

Hi Egypt willing to send troops to future Palestine.

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi says in published remarks that Egypt is prepared to send troops into a future Palestinian state to assist local police and guarantee Israel's security.

In comments to Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera published Sunday, el-Sissi says the troops would be stationed there temporarily to establish confidence.

In a clarifying statement later, his office said the idea is a way to encourage Israel to accept a two-state solution.

The last round of U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed in April. Since then, Israel fought a 50-day war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and advanced plans to build hundreds of new homes in Jewish areas of east Jerusalem.

Israel fears that Hamas would take control the West Bank if it withdrew its forces.

Hi Why Egypt Crushes at Squash.

Hi Why Egypt Crushes at Squash.

On Friday, Egypt’s Ramy Ashour won the squash World Open—basically the Wimbledon of squash. The tournament attracts the best players from around the world. But the final game lacked a certain element of suspense: Both players, Ashour and Mohamed El Shorbagy, were Egyptian. Even that was predictable. Egyptians dominated the international rankings this year—including El Shorbagy and Ashour, three of the Professional Squash Association’s top five players based on tournament results are Egyptian. As of Friday, Egypt has won seven of the past 12 World Opens—in the history of the tournament, which began in 1976, only Australia and Pakistan have more World Open titles. Egypt’s prowess in the sport is beginning to extend to international women’s tournaments, junior tournaments, and even American college sports: Egyptian men have won the last three U.S. Intercollegiate Individual Championships, a tournament for the best players attending U.S. universities.

How did so many Egyptians get so good at squash?

The dominance of Egyptian players dates back to squash’s earliest days as an internationally competitive sport. After being invented at a British prep school in the 19th century, the sport spread throughout the empire, including to Egypt. The British built clubs for their colonial officers in Cairo and Alexandria, but Egyptian ball boys and service staff had access to the squash courts in off-hours.

The sport’s first great international champion was F. D. Amr Bey, an Egyptian diplomat who started playing while stationed in England. He went on to win six consecutive British Open championships—then the sport’s biggest international competition—in the 1930s. His success inspired Egypt’s ball boys, one of whom, Mahmoud El Karim, racked up four of his own British Open championships in the 1940s.

Egypt didn’t produce many international champions between the 1950s and the 1990s. Repeated wars and domestic turmoil during the period made it difficult for the country’s best players to travel for tournaments while based in Egypt. “All the top players left the country and lived in Europe, and that’s when the drop [in Egyptian squash] happened,” Amr Shabana, a four-time squash world champion from Egypt, told me. The best players who stayed in Egypt couldn’t tour internationally. “[T]he country was on lockdown,” Shabana said.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak hits a squash ball. (Farouk Ibrahim/AP).

But in the late 1980s, Shabana, then 10 years old, and another player named Ahmad Barada, age 12, planted the seeds of Egypt’s resurgence when they started playing together at Cairo’s Maadi Club. Because Egypt’s remaining squash talent couldn’t tour, those players trained and competed in Cairo, meaning Barada and Shabana could practice and compete against some of the country’s best from a very young age. As Shabana explained, “There’s a quote that says ‘you’re only as good as the people around you.’ Around us were the best players—maybe not the best in the world, but we thought they were.” And they were also helped by the geography of Cairo, where, Shabana said, the squash clubs were all within a half hour's drive of one another. (This is in contrast to the U.S., where the major squash hubs are scattered between Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.) The result was a tight squash community centered on Cairo’s clubs. “This is the main reason squash thrived,” Shabana said. “Everybody pushed each other. This was I think quite unique.”

Beyond exposure to top professionals, Shabana and Barada had other advantages. The most noteworthy is that the rules of Egyptian tournaments permitted them to play many more matches than they would have been able to in England or the U.S. A 10-year-old Shabana competed in the bracket for players under 12, the U12, as well as the Under-14, Under-16, Under-19, and men’s tournaments, meaning he could potentially play five matches a day. More rigid conventions in the U.S. and England guide young players to compete in one bracket at a time, meaning they might only play one-fifth as many matches as their Egyptian counterparts have.

At the same time that Shabana and Barada were honing their art on the local level, President Hosni Mubarak—a squash player in his own right—was promoting squash’s prestige at the national level. In 1996, Mubarak brought a major international tournament to Egypt, and had a glass court built in front of the pyramids. Barada, then 19, reached the finals, and Mubarak congratulated him personally. Barada later reached second place in the Professional Squash Association’s World Rankings.

Shabana says Barada’s ranking gave Cairo’s young squash community a new target. Seven years later, at the age of 24, Shabana beat it, becoming the first Egyptian to win the World Open in 2003. After that, Shabana says, “the kids younger than me ... wanted to beat me.”

Mubarak, who was deposed in 2011, increased squash’s popularity, but not its accessibility. The sport remains an upper-class game in Egypt, populated by those who can get access to and pay fees for the same athletic clubs that the British built near the turn of the 20th century. Yasser El Halaby, a four-time Intercollegiate Champion from Princeton, explained to me that squash, for all the glory its players have attained, is not widely played in Egypt. He noted that there are a few thousand people who play squash in the country of some 82 million people. But the game’s profile—El Halaby says it’s Egypt’s second-most-popular sport, after soccer—means it draws some of the country’s best athletes. In most other parts of the world, this is not the case. “LeBron James is not playing squash,” El Halaby pointed out.

* * *

The reasons Egypt became so dominant in squash—the sport’s national prestige, combined with the access talented young people have to the country’s top players—persist to this day. Amr Khaled Khalifa, who in 2010 won squash’s Junior World Championship, the sport’s biggest tournament for players under 19, grew up training at the same club as and hitting with Shabana and Barada. He was just 11 when Shabana became a world champion. “I started playing squash at the Maadi Club, where world champions used to play,” he told me via email. “I had the chance to watch them training, which inspired me to take squash seriously and set my goals.” And, like his predecessors, he played as much as he could starting at a very young age, practicing twice a day and playing 15 tournaments a year.

Despite the fact that this year's squash world champion and the runner-up are Egyptian, Shabana said he believes the end of Egypt’s squash dominance is in sight. “I think it’s changing a bit,” he said. The top Egyptian players are once again living outside of Egypt due to lack of government support for the sport. “I’m living in Toronto, Ramy [Ashour] is mostly based in New York now, [El Shorbagy] is in England, and quite a high percentage of players now go to college in England and America. So there’s a gap,” he said. Though the logic works—it will be hard for the current Egyptian juniors to train with the best players in the world if none of them live in the country—Shabana’s view is contrarian. Results in junior tournaments suggest that an Egyptian successor will rise after the country’s current champion retires.

*See original article on The Atlantic: Click The Following Link Here. 

Hi Egypt acquits doctor in female genital mutilation.

Hi Egypt acquits doctor in female genital mutilation.

This undated photo provided by the Women’s Center for Guidance and Legal Awareness, shows a portrait of Sohair el-Batea, who died last year after undergoing a female genital mutilation operation by Dr. Raslan Fadl, in Egypt. On Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 a court is expected to issue a verdict in Egypt’s first-ever prosecution of a doctor accused of committing FGM. Thirteen-year-old Sohair died during the operation last year. Rights advocates say the outcome of this case could set a key precedent for deterring doctors and families in the future. (AP Photo/Women’s Center for Guidance and Legal Awareness).

CAIRO (AP) — A lawyer says an Egyptian court has acquitted a doctor charged with committing female genital mutilation that led to a 13-year-old girl's death.

Lawyer Atef Aboul Einein says the court in Dakahliya ruled Thursday that the doctor, Raslan Fadl, and the father of Soheir el-Batea were not guilty.

Aboul Einein, who has followed the case and obtained a copy of the ruling, says it was a "surprise" and warned it could open doors for "any doctor" to perform the banned procedure.

More than 90 percent of Egyptian women are estimated to have undergone the procedure, which involves the cutting off of all or part of the clitoris and the labia. In a conservative society, it is believed to control a young woman's sexual appetite.

Egypt criminalized the practice in 2008.

In this Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014 photo, women sit outside the clinic of Dr. Raslan Fadl, the doctor who performed the procedure of female genital mutilation on 13-year-old Sohair el-Batea that resulted in her death a year ago, in Aga town, Dakahliya,120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of Cairo, Egypt. Fadl is the first doctor in Egypt to be put on trial for committing female genital mutilation, after Sohair's death. But in this small Delta Village, not only is he still working as a doctor, but he has plenty of patients. Fadl’s continued work demonstrates the challenges to curbing FGM in Egypt, which has one of the highest rates of the practice in the world, at more than 90 percent. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty).

Hi Egypt hires German firm to bore transport tunnels under Suez Canal.

Hi Egypt hires German firm to bore transport tunnels under Suez Canal.

CAIRO/FRANKFURT (Reuter) - Egypt will use machines made by a German firm to bore at least four tunnels under the Suez Canal, part of an $8 billion project to expand the waterway that the government hopes will raise revenues and foreign currency reserves.

Unlisted Herrenknecht AG was discussing contract details, a spokesman for the company said on Friday, giving no details.

Kamal al-Waziri, chief of staff of the Egyptian armed forces' engineering division, had said on Thursday that the army had contracted a German company to provide machines for three car and train tunnels in Port Said, the northern outlet of the canal into the Mediterranean Sea. The tunnels are being built by Orascom Construction and other Arab contractors.

Half of the budget for expanding the canal was allocated for building six tunnels, the Suez Canal Authority said last week.

Egypt has been battered by political turmoil and violence for more than three years and the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hopes the expansion will almost triple revenues from the waterway by 2023 to $13.5 billion from $5 billion.

Sisi, the former army chief who has put infrastructure mega-projects at the top of his economic agenda, called for the new canal to be built within one year, instead of the five years recommended by international experts.

The development will run alongside the existing 145-year-old waterway - the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

(Reporting by Stephen Kalin in Cairo and Hans Seidenstücker in Frankfurt; Editing by Louise Ireland).

Hi Echoes Of Mubarak!. Sissi is militarizing the courts system. Sound familiar?

Hi Echoes Of Mubarak!.

Sissi is militarizing the courts system. 

Sound familiar?

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has passed a law that extends the reach of the country's military courts and places all "public and vital facilities under military jurisdiction for the next two years and directs state prosecutors to refer any crimes at those places to their military counterparts," according to a report released by Human Rights Watch Monday. The new law allows for the militarization of prosecution of protesters and other government opponents -- a mandate similar to those implemented during the reign of former President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in February 2011 at the start of the Arab Spring.

Under Mubarak, Egypt's military arrested nearly 12,000 civilians for various charges, including inciting violence at protests, during the revolution in 2011, and brought them before military tribunals. According to officials from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Egypt tried 11,879 civilians in military tribunals from Jan. 28 to Aug. 29, 2011. Of that number, more than 8,000 were convicted.

Now, under Sisi, Egypt is getting back to widespread civilian military trials. Sisi issued the new law just days after an attack in the Sinai Peninsula killed dozens of soldiers, the deadliest attack yet in an insurgency that has grown since the ousting of former President Mohammed Morsi by SCAF in July 2013. According to the Human Rights Watch report, since the ouster of Morsi, Egypt's military courts have tried at least 140 civilians. It is still unclear what charges each individual faced, but many were arrested during protests against Morsi's removal from power.

“This law represents another nail in the coffin of justice in Egypt,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director, said in the report. “Its absurdly broad provisions mean that many more civilians who engage in protests can now expect to face trial before uniformed judges subject to the orders of their military superiors.”

Sisi's crackdown on civilian protestors started earlier this year during the beginning of the school semester. Egyptian police officers armed with tear gas canisters stormed lecture halls at Alexandria University, arresting and wounding dozens. Students at other universities such as Bani Swaif and Assuit were also protesting the removal of Morsi. In one weekend, Egyptian police officers arrested more than 90 students. On Nov. 16, a criminal court in Cairo referred five students from al-Azhar University to the military because of their involvement in the protests. The students have been charged with joining a terrorist organization, displaying force, threatening to use violence, possession of Molotov cocktails and vandalism, according to Human Rights Watch.

“This new decree is pernicious and contrary to basic standards of justice,” Whitson said in the report. “Egypt’s authorities should annul all the military court verdicts against civilians handed down since the new government took power, and President el-Sisi needs to act quickly to amend his decree.”

Historically, Egypt's military has influenced politics. Mubarak formed strong ties between his administration and SCAF, relying on the army to take over most of the security in the country. The military, in essence, replaced the police forces. Since Mubarak's time in office, the military has remained in tact and has continued to influence the political process in Egypt. Sisi, like Mubarak, is supportive of SCAF and its power to rule in the streets.

Hi THANK YOU FOR VIEWING!.

Hi Let’s talk Micro finance in Egypt!.

Hi Let’s talk Micro finance in Egypt!.

With the new microfinance law issued this week, Egypt Business Directory looks at the microfinance landscape in Egypt.

The new law was issued last Thursday, according to the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA), and aims at regulating microcredit provided by non-bank financiers, putting them under the authority of EFSA. This concerns mainly companies and non-governmental organizations, whereas banks will continue to respond to the Central Bank of Egypt.

This aims at strengthening the regulatory framework and practices, in order to attract investors, according to the head of EFSA Sherif Samy.

Whereas the law might help resolve issues that had arisen earlier, regulatory framework and practices are not Egypt’s biggest problem in the microfinance sector.

The Economist Intelligence Unit released a report last year entitled “Global microscope on the microfinance business environment 2013”, which evaluated 55 countries according to the regulatory framework and practices, supporting institutional framework (transparency and client protection) and stability (in terms of political situation).

Egypt advanced from the 50th to the 49th rank compared to a year earlier; however, the main burden facing microfinance is political instability, which delays regulatory reforms.

Breaking down the rank, Egypt came in 41st in terms of regulatory framework and practices, while scoring 46th in supporting the institutional framework. The country came in last in the stability evaluation.

Hence, the country mainly needs to work on its institutional framework and be concerned with political stability, as well as address its “weak dispute-resolution mechanisms”, according to the report. 

In an attempt to raise awareness about the new law issued last week and give an outlook on what will happen in 2015, EFSA joined forces with conference organizer IQPC to host “Microfinance Egypt” – an event that will take place from the 20th – 21st of January 2015. The conference will include panel discussions, showcases and workshops. For more information on the event, please click here. 

In general, Microfinancial Institutions (MFIs) do not routinely disclose interest rates, and the participation in credit bureaus in Egypt is higher than Yemen, which prevents multiple borrowing.

Who regulates microfinance in Egypt?

The Central Bank of Egypt, the Ministry of Social Solidarity, and the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority.

Who provides microfinance services? 

Four banks and over 400 non-governmental organization-microfinance institutions (NGO-MFIs), according to the Economist report.

What is the main burden?

The Economist Intelligence Unit pinpoints political instability – in reference to the removal of former president Mohamed Morsi and the new draft NGO Law.

Hi Egypt's gas exports fall 81.4% in September.

Hi Egypt's gas exports fall 81.4% in September.

- "Natural gas exports continue to drop as more production is used to meet Egypt's rising electricity demands."

Egypt's exports of natural gas in September declined 81.4 percent compared to the same period last year, the state-run Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) reported on Thursday.

The value of exports totalled $18.1 million, compared to $97.1 million in September 2013.

Meanwhile, natural gas production fell 12.2 percent lower than its September 2013 level, totalling 3.01 million tonnes of natural gas, compared to 3.4 million in the same month of the previous year.

Electric power generation accounted for some 68.7 percent of natural gas consumption, up from 59.6 percent a year before, reflecting Egypt's efforts to meet rising domestic demands for electricity.

"There have been no new concessions in the period from 2010 to 2013, which resulted in decreasing exploration areas to only 27 blocks during 2013, down from 53 in 2010," the minister of petroleum, Sherif Ismail, said earlier this week.

Delays in explorations are a result of mounting debts to foreign oil and gas companies following the 2011 uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

Gas producers currently receive about $2.65 per 1,000 cubic feet, far below the prices paid in the North Sea and elsewhere, reported Reuters last month. But Ismail said this week that the ministry plans to free prices in one of several attempts to encourage explorations.

Exports of crude oil and other petroleum products were valued at $321 million, down 20 percent from $401 million in September 2013.

Meanwhile, domestic consumption of petroleum products rose 26.1 percent year-on-year to 3.2 million tonnes.

The United Arab Emirates pledged $9 billion worth of petroleum products starting in September, to be sent over a year.

Egypt's production of Brent crude and petroleum condensates, such as gas oil and naphtha, dipped by 1.5 percent year-on-year in September to reach 2.9 million tonnes, according to the IDSC.

Hi Exclusive: New mixed-use development unveiled in Cairo.

Hi Exclusive: New mixed-use development unveiled in Cairo.

French studio Vincent Callebaut Architects has revealed a muti-purpose complex for Nasr City in Cairo, Egypt.

The project is designed to obtain a LEED Gold Plus standing and features a solar roof, green terraces, sky villas and vertical gardens and solar heating tubes.

The Gate Residence is composed of 1000 apartment units with a health club and spa, fitness centre, business centre, restaurants, cafes, retail spaces and a medical centre.

The building’s spine is formed by a central street called the Boulevard. Arranged in U-shapes, the rectangular apartment buildings branch off the Boulevard.

The surfaces of the housing units are stacked layers of e-low glass, polished with white stone and features suspended garden balconies. The commercial levels have two different facades.

The entire roof of the complex is turned into a community garden featuring food gardens, orchards, infinity pools and sports areas, while the two plots are connected by sky bridges.

With the aim to limit its own carbon footprint, the building recycles part of the generated waste as grey water, while a system of mesh surface and second skin of white steel and cables integrates photovoltaic cells, thermal tubes, and vertical gardens.

Vincent Callebaut also built structural Megatrees to function as passive cooling systems, inspired by the technology behind wind catching towers (Malqaf) originally developed by Ancient Egyptians.