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 Business
Monthly
May 2002
The
focus this month is on the potentially lucrative petrochemicals sector,
with interesting angles on Egypt's increasing attempts to export natural
gas, plastics and cosmetics. An article asks: If gas prices went up from
LE1 to LE3 per liter, would consumption go down? More importantly
perhaps, what would the ramifications be on social
unrest...
Rises
in prices of textbooks and medicines are chronicled, with university
students and rheumatism sufferers, both, complaining of rise in prices
up to 20 per cent or more. Meanwhile, in March, Al-Azhar issued a fatwa
declaring speculation on the black market was haram, making it even more
difficult to gauge, perhaps, what the right dollar pound exchange rate
should be. On the other hand, consumers were -- in any case -- being
pulled towards a more digitized economy whether they like it or not --
as in this
story on the new downtown parking meters (also see "Modern
Parking"), and the new smart cards banks are increasingly
using for customer transactions.
With
the war over, everyone's talking about the potential for Egyptian
business and labor to capitalize on the rebuilding of Iraq. Although
this feature is not conclusive about the chances of that project's
success, it gives an
idea of who the players are. The war, meanwhile, as this
item posits, has put a serious dent in state media ad
sales. Accompanied by a photo of the skeleton
of an empty highway billboard,
the sector is anxious for a revival of business. A tough climate, then,
for a new financial weekly newspaper to come onto the scene. But Al-Mal
has arrived, pinning a lot of hope on potential advertising revenue, which is
expected to nearly double within a year.
Al-Azhar
has embarked on a massive project to transform its large collection of
Quranic manuscripts into an online digital library. Involving some 100 employees,
and $5 million spent on the scanners alone, the work is still slow-going.
It's a delicate process, and there are worries about security
risks.
Yachting
does not immediately come to mind when you think of Egypt, but maybe it
should. A grand
piece about yachting provides the ins and outs of that pastime.
And for more of the high life, an extensive review of Mohamed El-Saghir's
recent leap into holistic
care gives us detailed info about the very famous coiffeur's
offerings.
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