CABINET WATCH- The Madbouly Cabinet signed off yesterday on a EGP 2.5 bn plan to develop the country’s education infrastructure, according to a statement. The plan will build some 2,500 new schools across Egypt as part of the government’s plans to overhaul the education sector. No further details were provided on what these developments entail, or when the government expects them to be complete.

Madbouly forms committee to amend Mineral Resources Law: The prime minister also decided to form a committee with representatives oil, investment, environment, finance, local administration, defense, and public enterprises minister and representatives from the Federation of Egyptian Industries’ mining and quarries division to draft amendments to the Mineral Resources Act. The House of Representatives’ Industry Committee had been looking at changes to the act, including cutting licensing fees, royalties, and tolls payable to the state by 50% last year.

(Background on the mining law: Industry players have argued that Egypt could be one of the top mining destinations in the world — if it dumps the oil and gas production sharing model that it now follows. Instead, Egypt should resort to the “transparent model” of a tax and royalty regime, Aton Resources’ Mark Campbell argued in a piece for Enterprise last year. Read: Egypt’s golden opportunity: Mining for the 21st Century.)

Also approved during yesterday’s weekly meeting:

• Draft regulations on unpaid vacations for employees covered under the Civil Service Act;
• Extending the grace period for tourism investors in Luxor and Aswan to complete payments owed to the state for an additional six months;
• A direct order agreement between Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center and Telecom Egypt to provide call center services until 30 June 2019;
• Several decisions and recommendations from the Investor Disputes Resolution Committee.