Browsing: Egypt

Tourism and Hospitality management group, Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) is upbeat of positive performance going forward offsetting the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in FY2020.

The Rainbow Tourism group which is located in Zimbabwe, has an extensive portfolio of owner-managed or leased hotels and conference facilities in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, as well as a tour operator company.

As countries implement Covid-19 vaccinations to its residents as part of efforts to limit the spread and severity of the pandemic, the group is hopeful of the economic recovery with anticipation healing on the travel and tourism sector across the globe.

“The tourism industry was adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. While the current situation is likely to persist into early 2021, we remain confident that the tourism industry will in time rebound and set the hotel business on a path towards recovery.

“A glimmer of hope has come from the ongoing …

Egyptian start-ups are to benefit from two funds that have been raised early this month from Sawari Ventures which has raised $69 million and $90 million from Algebra ventures.

Algebra Venture an Egyptian venture capital firm announced the launch of its $90 million second fund yesterday after it closed its first fund of $54 million four years ago. Come the close of the second fund, the firm hopes to have raised a total of $144 million, with the first fund closing in the third quarter of 2021. If the venture capital achieves its target, it will most likely have the largest indigenous fund from North Africa.

Tarek Assaad and Karim Hussein, Algebra venture managing directors said that the first fund was mainly focused on Egypt while the second fund will also be focused on Egypt while allocating investments in East and West Africa, Middle East and North Africa. The …

The St. Regis Almasa will play a significant role in giving the tourism industry the much-needed support and will become the new destination for luxury hospitality in Egypt.…

Egypt’s tourism revenues fell by 67.2% due to COVID-19 in 2020 after recording $13 billion in 2019 when Egypt received 13 million international tourists; in 2020 it received 9.5 million. 

Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities minister Khaled Al-Anani said, “We witnessed a great year in 2019 in terms of numbers and revenues, and the first two months in 2020 were 8% higher, with 2.4 million tourists. The goal now is not to measure the number of tourists, but to say Egypt is a safe tourist destination even amid the coronavirus crisis.” 

He added that a total of 65% of tourists in 2020 did so in January and February.  

With the outbreak in March, Egypt closed its hotels but reopened them after two months with about 25% maximum occupancy later increasing it to 50%…

United States (US) investments in Egypt totals to $21.8 billion over the past 12 months according to

US investments in Egypt totalled $21.8 billion over the past 12 months according to Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Nevine Gamea.  The investments are in sectors such as tourism, agriculture, service, industrial, construction, telecommunications and information technology. 

The minister also added that the trade exchange between the US and Egypt reached $8.618 billion in 2019 compared to $7.53 billion in 2018. 

Gamea’s remarks came during a meeting with a delegation from the US Department of State headed by Keith Krach, Under-Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment who were in the country to discuss joint economic cooperation. 

She also noted that economic relations between the two countries are strategic, based on a long history of joint cooperation in various commercial, industrial and investment fields …

Google has launched a programme to support Egypt’s digital transformation through a $9m technological training programme according to Hisham Al-Nazer, Director of Google Egypt.

The director said that the moves come at a time when covid-19 pandemic has changed the mode of doing business with people turning to the internet to either buy or sell products and services.

While launching the program, Al-Nazer noted that during the period from March to September 2020, Internet search rates increased by about 43 per cent.

The training is expected to benefit more than one million companies and individuals through the learning of digital skills and develop their businesses before the end of 2021.

He added that Google will secure about  $9 million in funding and advertisements as grants to governments and companies while a total of $4 million has been allocated in the form of financial grants and loans to help small companies.…

Egypt maintained its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate at 3.6 per cent during the last fiscal year (FY) 2019/20, despite the economic challenges presented by the pandemic, according to Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait.

The minister’s remarks came during his participation in virtual meetings organised by Bank of America during the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) fall meetings.

Minister Maait said that Egypt was able to reduce its deficit–to-GDP ratio to 7.9 per cent in FY 2019/20, compared to the 8.2 per cent recorded in FY 2018/19.

At the end of June 2020, Egypt also achieved a primary surplus of 1.8 per cent despite the negative repercussions caused by Covid-19.

He also added that in the same period, the country was also able to reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio to 87 per cent compared to the 90.4 per cent recorded in the same period in 2019 and 108 per cent …

Egypt recorded a $69.965 billion in foreign trade during the first nine months of the fiscal year (FY) 2019/20, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

According to the bank’s report, during the period from July 2019 to March 2020, Egypt’s imports amounted to about $49.012 billion while the volume of its exports reached about $20.953 billion.

Egypt’s volume of trade exchange with its most important trading partners amounted to about $44.296 billion. Of this amount, about $31.575 billion came from imports while about $12.720 billion came from exports. A total of 14 countries account for 63.3 per cent of Egypt’s total volume of trade exchange.

According to the central bank, United Arab Emirates ranked as Egypt’s most important trading partner, accounting for a trade exchange volume of about $5.745 billion with imports valued at $3.157 billion and exports at $225.1 million.

China took second place with a trade …

Egypt’s Balance of Payment (BOP) declined by 8.6 per cent in June 2020 compared to the same month in 2019 according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

According to CAPMAS, Egypt saw a trade deficit of $3.30 billion the same period.

This was majorly caused by the fall of exports by 7.8 per cent to $2.26 billion down from $2.45 billion causing a decrease in the BOP to $3.3 billion instead of $3.61 billion. The downturn has been attributed to the decreased value of some commodities, including fresh fruits at 10.5 per cent, ready-to-wear clothing at 2.5 per cent, crude oil at 46.3 per cent and plastics in primary forms at 10.4 per cent.

At the same period, the value of other exports increased during June 2020, which include various pastries and food preparations increased by 28.0 per cent, dairy products by 29.3 per cent and …

Trade exchange between Egypt and China recorded $5.2 billion during the first seven months of 2020, according to Nevine Gamea,  Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry.

According to Nevine Gamea, by the end of 2018, the total Chinese investments in Egypt amounted to $7.2 billion, distributed over 1736 projects.

In a statement, Gamea said that China is ranked 20th in the list of the largest countries investing in the Egyptian market adding that in the world, China is Egypt’s most important trading partner.

The Egyptian minister also emphasized the ministry’s keenness to enhance cooperation with the Chinese government in the field of small and micro enterprises (SMEs) to benefit from China’s long experience in this field, especially since small enterprises represent a large segment of the Chinese economy.

China’s General Administration of Customs said earlier that the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and China hit $4.31 billion from January …