29/03/1997
Regarding “The Management and Mechanisms of Egyptian Economy Transformation”, Major General Ahmed Arafa submitted a working paper “Requirements of the Aspired Transformation in the Investment Field”, while Banque du Caire presented a working paper “Egyptian Economy, One of the Economic Tigers at the Beginning of the 21st Century”. (Available in Arabic – German in PDF )
The paper presented by Major General Ahmed Arafa raised several questions, such as: Is it right to cancel tax exemptions for the expansion of investment projects? Is it right to cancel the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones at the transformational stage? Is it proper to sell energy with dissimilar prices to different projects? Is it proper to give industrial projects and other kinds of projects equal incentives despite the higher risks involved in industrial projects? Is it right to continue imposing sales tax on equipment and capital assets used in the production process? Does the investment incentives and guarantees bill encourage the establishment of big economic entities able to compete in a world that encourages the establishment of these entities for their high value added to the national economy? The study prepared by Banque du Caire entitled “Egyptian Economy, One of the Economic Tigers at the Beginning of the 21st Century” revolves around how banks can participate in the economic boom phase in the coming period. The study defined several ways for achieving that end, such as carrying out large-scale bank marketing, promoting new investment opportunities in different fields through the branches of the public sector banks in the European and Arab countries in order to market investment projects in Egypt and show the incentives given by the state to investment. The paper also included the participation of public banks in high-cost investment projects, granting loans with various terms to brokers and dealers to make financial deals in markets, securing the required finance for the establishment of joint free zones and the establishment of export-oriented projects in these zones, granting housing and real estate loans in order to activate the building and contracting sector and developing new urban communities and focusing on the industries that distinguishes each region and securing the required financing for them.