The Egyptian Minister of Finance, Samir Sayyad, has recently said that his country’s economy shrank during the first three months of this year by 7% due to slow economic activities following the protests the country has witnessed which led to a significant decline in tourism and investments. The minister said that his country got a promise from the World Bank of a loan worth $ 2.2 billion with an interest rate of 3% paid in 18 years. Egypt has been trying to obtain funding volume of ten billion dollars from international lenders to cope with the repercussions of the protests that led to the fall of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.
Samir Sayyad explained that Egypt is undergoing a very critical moment after the popular revolution, pointing out that the economy has been adversely affected during the past months. He also affirmed that the economic conditions have begun, in recent weeks, to recover with the decline in the protests, and the return of stability and security.
The Egyptian Tourism Minister, Munir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, pointed out a decline in the numbers of Arab tourists visiting Egypt during the period from January to by 45.3% comparing to the numbers recorded during the same period in 2010. In addition to that, the Egyptian Minister announced the launch of campaigns to promote tourism to Egypt in the various Arab media, as well as continuing to send exchange groups to most of the Arab States and receive delegations from these countries to inform them of the latest developments in the Egyptian tourism environment.
The General Secretary of the Arab Tourism Organization, Bandar Bin Fahd Al Fahid, expressed that there are many difficulties facing the Arab region now where the loss of tourism sector in some Arab countries attained $ 4 billion, pointing out that when the Arab tourism sector was facing crises such as avian flu and swine flu and the economic crisis, the global Arab tourism sector has been able to stay a target for international tourists.
The French Minister of Foreign Trade said that his country is ready to provide the necessary technical assistance to Egypt in the field of tightening economic laws for it become more transparent, and help developing top notch economic and financial practices, especially as France has recently enacted several legislations related to this matter.
He stressed that France’s support for the Egyptian economy would be through increased investments and the development of bilateral trade with Egypt. Indeed, France assured her willingness to encourage investors to bring their funds in Egypt. Investments are considered a long-term support to Egypt and will help the Egyptian economy to overcome the negative effects of the recent events, and contribute to the sustainable development and the increase of household incomes. Source: yallafinance.com.
