EnterprisePM — SFE lining up USD 2.5 bn in private-sector investment for desalination plants

Well, folks, that’s workweek #33 of 2021 in the books for those of us here in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world. We hope it treated you well — and that you’re heading for the beach right now (if summer hasn’t already come to an end for you as the kids return to school).

THE BIG STORY TODAY- Global stocks are in the ????this afternoon, with major European indexes across the continent down all down 2% or more. The EGX30 followed suit, closing today down 0.9% and erasing its gains for the year. The benchmark index is now 0.3% in the red YTD. Look for Wall Street and Bay Street to open sharply lower later this afternoon, if futures are any indication.

What’s going on? Investors are leery about the US Federal Reserve’s plan to begin tapering later this year — and they’re also getting skittish about the potential impact on global growth of the rapidly spreading delta variant of the virus that causes covid-19. The story leads the front pages of the Financial Times and CNBC and is getting prominent play in the Wall Street Journal, which adds that oil is also on the slide.

SAY IT ISN’T SO- Battlestations, battlestations — the Ever Given is heading for the Suez Canal, according to shipping monitor Marine Traffic. In case you were living under a rock back in March, the Panama-flagged ship became lodged in the Suez Canal for nearly a week, disrupting some 10-15% of global trade. It was then held pending negotiations over compensation, before finally being released on 7 July. Owner Shoei Kisen reportedly paid out USD 540 mn in compensation to the Suez Canal Authority.

The good people at GASC need to be working on their market forecasts as Russia looks set to cut back further on wheat exports. Russia has traditionally been our top provider of wheat (just as we’ve traditionally been the largest wheat importer in the world), but Moscow is selling less and less. Today, Russian has fulfilled just 20% of all wheat contracts Egypt has filled, the lowest level in seven seasons, according to Bloomberg data. What gives? Putin is keeping more and more of it home in a bid to keep a lid on inflation — and Russia seems to be on track for an anemic crop this year.

Turkey is really poking around in our neighborhood once more. This time, Mr. Erdogan is banging on about the need for a peaceful solution of Ethiopia’s war in Tigray — and separately offering to mediate on the Sudan-Ethiopia border dispute. The move comes after Erdogan met with UAE national security advisor Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan in what Bloomberg called “the clearest sign yet that the regional foes are ready to turn the page.”

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Swvl is looking to expand into Europe by acquiring Shotl, an on-demand bus platform covering 22 cities in 10 countries. We have an update on the story in today’s Speed Round.
• The Sovereign Sukuk Act is now the law of the land after President Abdel Fattah El Sisi signed off on the bill. It opens the door for Egypt’s first sovereign sukuk issuance.
• The NTRA has adopted a data center and cloud computing regulatory framework as Egypt pushes ahead with plans to become a heavyweight in the data center industry.

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THE BIG STORY ABROAD- It’s still Afghanistan, where protests against Taliban rule have spread to more cities — and protesters were again killed, this time in Asadabad as Taliban forces fired into crowds.

Afghanistan is likely to suffer higher food prices and capital controls, with its people facing “dire” financial prospects after the Taliban poured earlier this week into Kabul and other major cities across the country, former acting central bank governor Ajmal Ahmady tells the Financial Times. “We’ve finished the military phase and now we’re going to start the economic phase of the impact,” Ahmady, who fled the country last weekend, said. US President Joe Biden, whose administration had frozen the Taliban’s access to Afghan government reserves in US banks, stressed that chaos in Afghanistan was unavoidable as troops withdrew, saying that “the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” in an interview with ABC News, Bloomberg reported.

SIGN OF THE TIMES- Toyota slashes production thanks to covid and global chip shortage: Toyota Motors announced (pdf) this morning that it was making “adjustments” to its production cycle in August and September, suspending production in 27 out of 28 production lines in 15 plants in Japan. This announcement comes a few days after the company reported cases of covid-19 at its plants and comes amid reports picked up by Reuters that Toyota was looking to cut global production by 40% next month on account of the global chip shortage.

Could this impact the availability of Toyota models in Egypt? That is still unclear, as representatives of the company had no comment to give us as of dispatch time. That said, the Egyptian Association of Automobile Manufacturers had been complaining in the local press back in May that major car manufacturers have been forced to slash production due to the global chip shortage. Industry analysts at the time had been projecting the local impact of this shortage will be felt all the way until 2022.

Domestic heavyweight GB Auto reported that the semiconductor shortage had constrained its growth in what was otherwise a very strong second quarter for the company (pdf).

???? FOR YOUR COMMUTE-

YOUR MANDATORY COVID STORY- The delta variant continues to put paid to hopes that we’ll see the back of covid anytime soon. A study published today in a preprint by Oxford University and the UK’s Office for National Statistics has concluded that covid-19 vaccines are less effective at protecting against delta than other variants, Bloomberg reports. With over 3 mn PCR tests analyzed to map infection patterns, vaccinated people infected with the delta variant were found to have similar levels of virus in their bodies as unvaccinated people. This backs up evidence that delta is more transmissible than other covid-19 variants — even in vaccinated people.

But the unvaccinated are still judged to be most at risk: The study is clear that vaccines remain the best protection against covid-19. Around 4.5 months after the second dose, the Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots offer roughly similar protection against preventing infections with a high viral load. It may be further evidence to support mixing the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines, which use different technologies, according to the study.

But the results represent another blow to the idea of achieving herd immunity, showing that “unvaccinated people are just going to be at higher risk,” one Oxford professor said.

Meanwhile, the US is pushing for booster shots next month: As countries with ample vaccine supplies face concerns over new waves of infections, plans to administer booster shots are drawing criticism of vaccine hoarding. The Biden administration is planning to start offering a third dose of vaccines in the US next month, after scientists warned of the risk of new cases related to the delta variant, the Financial Times reports.

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Over in the UAE, waste incineration is on the rise now that other countries — notably China — have stopped importing trash, Bloomberg tells us. With the construction of a new USD 1.1 bn waste-to-energy plant, soon the UAE may incinerate almost two-thirds of the household waste it currently produces. While there are strong reasons for investing in WtE — namely, that it produces energy — it will also impact the UAE’s attempts to phase out carbon emissions by 2050.

REFRESHER- Here in Egypt, WtE is struggling as a sector to get off the ground, as private sector players bemoan a low feed-in tariff, an electricity supply glut, and a lack of competitiveness with solar and renewables. We dive deeper into those problems in our last Going Green feature, which you can check out here.

Speaking of recycling gone bad: Go read Dead white man’s clothes on ABC Australia’s website on how tons and tons of recycled clothing donated to charity wing up in landfills in Africa. About 15 mn used pieces of clothing pour into Accra alone every week from Europe, the US, Canada and Australia. 40% of it is of such poor quality to goes straight to the dump. You can blame fast-fashion brands including H&M, Zara and Boohoo, which are doing up to 52 micro collections a year of low-quality clothing rather than four, longer-lasting seasons a year.

If America has a diabetes problem, what about us here in Egypt? At least 10% of Americans (pdf) have type-2 diabetes — a figure that rises to nearly 16% here. And covid is making the situation even worse: Diabetics and other folks with disordered metabolism have much higher risk of becoming very sick or dying of covid-19. And the pandemic has made it even more difficult for diabetics to get help managing the disease. Go read How the pandemic laid bare America’s diabetes crisis and then maybe go here and read about how diabetics can put their disease in remission by cutting carbs from their diet. Want to go even deeper? Try Nina Teicholz’s The Big Fat Surprise or Dr. Jason Fung’s The Diabetes Code.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-

Ending our sports documentaries week on a high note: State of Play is an ingenious documentary that explores human psychology and societal dynamics through sports. Each episode revolves around a different theme, opening with a brief overview, followed by a verite documentary and finally a roundtable discussion from experts. Our favorite episode is S1E4: Game of Borders which shows the life or death stakes the Palestinian national football team has to overcome to keep playing. Otherwise, other great episodes include S1E1: Trophy Kids where the pressure that parents put on their children to be athletes is explores, S1E2: Inherent Violence that looks at violence in sports, and S2E3 which follows the US’s NFL as they disclose the toll the highly physical game has had on players and try and make the sport safer. You can find State of Play on OSN Streaming.

⚽It’s a slow, slow weekend for football fans, with hardly a worthy game in sight until Saturday.

In the Premier League, we’ve got Liverpool versus Burnley at 1:30pm, Aston Villa versus Newcastle United, Crystal Palace versus Brentford, Leeds United versus Everton, and Manchester City versus Norwich City all at 4pm. Finally, Brighton & Hove Albion versus Watford is kicking off at 6:30pm.

Kicking off Serie A, we have Hellas Verona versus Sassuolo and Internazionale versus Genoa at 6:30pm followed by Empoli versus Lazio and Torino versus Atalanta at 8:45pm. All times given are CLT.

???? And so we’re forced to go to that other ‘football’: And with not even tennis to watch (the US Open doesn’t kick off until 30 August), you’re going to have to settle for preseason NFL games if ‘Murican fooball is your thing. In the second week of preseason play, the Patriots take on the Eagles at 1:30am tonight (well, technically, tomorrow morning) in a Super Bowl rematch. The Pats are 1-0 after beating the Washington Football Team (they still haven’t decided on a new name), and the game will the the Eagles’ first.

Tomorrow: Said Washington Football Team takes on the Tennessee Titans (go Titans, if only because on of our brothers-in-law root for them) and the Bills take on the Lions. There are no fewer than 10 games to watch on Saturday and then two more on Sunday. Check out the full schedule here.

????EAT THIS TONIGHT-

Whether you’re heading back to Sahel or staying in Cairo, Fish Chips & Dips brings London’s favorite snack to Umm El Donia, plus a few Egyptian-ized fish dishes. If you’re a seafood lover, this is the place for you. Think fish anything and everything from the namesake dish fish & chips to seafood rolls, burgers, nachos salads, and pastas. We recommend you opt for the classic fish & chips, salmon burger, shrimp nachos, or seafood pasta. Also not to be missed is their taiyaki ice cream that is in a cake-like cone shaped like a fish and loaded with chocolate, Lotus, or another delicious sweet addition. You can find the seafood-obsessed joint at Sheikh Zayed’s Walk of Cairo or North Coast’s M Beach Club at Marina 5.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-

Music-wise, both branches of Cairo Jazz are serving up some funk and boogie this weekend. Cairo Jazz Club in Agouza is spinning soul and funk, after an opening acoustic set from singer Shady Ahmed. And tomorrow, Cairo Jazz 610 in Sheikh Zayed is holding the fantastically-named Boogie Night in Outer Space. Both events run until 1am, and reservations can be made through a Facebook message.

On Saturday, Cairo Opera House is holding a musical tribute to Youssef Chahine, starting at 8pm. Tickets are available online through the Facebook page, or can be purchased directly through the opera house.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings is a great book to have lying around the office. The illustrated book is hilarious and will keep you wanting to read more, but at the same time also offers pretty good advice if we do say so ourselves. Sarah Cooper offers insights on what your resting face is communicating to others, how to seem intelligent (by repeating after the soft spoken engineer), and how to impress others. What makes the book great is that she’s often spot on about the weird and random thoughts that revolve in our heads as we attempt even the most miniscule change in tone or demeanor. Seeing it all laid out and expressed gives an idea of how we appear to others and how we’re all pretty similar in our approaches to being “the cool guy” at meetings.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER-

Surprise, surprise. It’s still pretty hot. We should expect the mercury to stay solidly around 40°C for much of the day in Cairo, although we’ll see some respite later, with a nighttime low of 25°C, our favorite weather app tells us. Sahel will remain cooler, with a daytime high of 33°C and overnight low of 24°C.

SMART POLICY- The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE) is looking to do with desalination what Egypt did last decade with electricity and natural gas as it seeks private-sector partners to build and run 17 new desalination plants at an aggregate cost of about USD 2.5 bn. The news comes as “the country tries to tackle looming water scarcity,” Mirette Magdy writes for Bloomberg.

What’s new here? Back in August of 2019, the government outlined a plan to build some 39 desalination plants at a cost of perhaps EGP 30 bn. Some 16 of the facilities were initially to be on the fast track and set to come online in 2020 — but that was before covid-19 hit. The Bloomberg story quotes SFE boss Ayman Soliman as saying Egypt will look to use renewable energy to power the 17 plants for which it is lining up investment. The SFE is aiming to take a minority stake in each of the 17 plants, explaining “Egypt is keen to build a sustainable technology base to control its destiny when it comes to water security.”

How much capacity are we talking about here? Soliman said the plants will produce a combined 2.8 mn cubic meters of water per day by 2025 — part of a plan to add capacity of 6.4 mn cubic meters a day by 2050.

Dive deeper into Egypt’s plan to ensure water security in Hardhat.

Advisors: EBRD and the IFC will give technical support and advise on the bidding, Bloomberg reports, noting that Soliman suggested “several investors” have already expressed interest in the plants.

Benefits of the return of Russian tourists will be muted — for now, says Capital Economics: While the return of direct flights between Russia and Egypt’s resorts will give Egypt’s tourism some much needed reprieve, any economic benefits from the move “will be limited,” Capital Economics said in a report out this week.

Capital Economics’ reasoning? Russia’s covid restrictions: Russia still has restrictions put in place that require unvaccinated travellers to quarantine and isolate while awaiting PCR tests. While these restrictions don’t necessarily target Egypt, they would discourage unvaccinated tourists from traveling, notes the report.

Then there’s Egypt’s vaccination program, which Capital Economics calls “one of the slowest in the world” with less than 4% of the population having been vaccinated. This will leave Egypt vulnerable to fresh outbreaks of the virus, particularly if greater international travel increases the risk of importing the more transmissible Delta variant.

While these points do explain why Egypt is still in the UK’s Red List, we’re not sure they have it right when it comes to the Ruskies. Prior to Russian President Vladimir Putin lifting the six-year flight ban a Russian delegation carried out health checks in airports and hotels in Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada. Earlier this week, Russia’s covid committee tripled the number of flights to Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada starting 27 August to 15 flights per week.

Swvl global expansion gets underway: Mass transportation startup Swvl has reached an agreement to acquire a controlling interest in Barcelona-based transportation platform Shotl, it said in a detailed press release out earlier today. The transaction, which was first revealed last night by Reuters, would see Swvl's geographic footprint more than double with the addition of 22 cities across 10 countries across Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region, including Brazil and Japan. This would see Swvl operate in a total of 32 cities in 16 countries, spanning the company said. Neither Swvl or Shotl disclosed the size of the transaction.

MARKET NEWS– Qalaa Holdings Chairman Ahmed Heikal has settled a case involving a single USD 4 mn cheque, which saw him slapped with a travel ban back in June, the company said in a regulatory filing (pdf) today. Heikal was informed by authorities back then that he was not allowed to travel as the result of a court ruling handed down to him in absentia without him even being aware there were proceedings for him to attend (or to which to send his lawyer). The matter is now resolved, according to the filing. Qalaa shares followed the EGX down today, closing off 2.6%.

It’s a not-uncommon feature of our legal landscape for verdicts to be handed down without the defendant even being notified that they’re taking place. Verdicts issued in absentia are automatically set aside when the defendant appears and the court then re-hears the case. Legal scholars and lawmakers have for years called for the provision to be scrapped, most recently during a 2018 debate about the overhaul of the penal code.

EARNINGS WATCH-

Oriental Weavers saw its net income grow 461% y-o-y in 2Q2021 to EGP 299 mn, the carpet maker reported in its earnings release (pdf). Sales revenues grew 57.5% y-o-y for the quarter to EGP 2.9 bn.

Amer Group saw losses to the tune of EGP 33.9 mn in 2Q2021, down from a bottomline of EGP 17 mn in 2Q2020, the company reported in its consolidated financial statements (pdf). Revenues for the quarter declined to EGP 233.5 mn, down from EGP 386.8 mn during the same period in 2020.

MARKET ROUNDUP-

The EGX30 fell 0.9% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.9 bn (27.6% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is down 0.3% YTD as of today’s close.

In the green: Palm Hills (+1.9%), CIRA (+1.1%), and GB Auto (+0.7%).

In the red: Fawry (-5.0%), Speed Medical (-2.6%), and Raya (-2.5%).

The history of your morning best friend: The second most-traded commodity on Earth, coffee is an essential component of modern human life. This humble bean has shaped everything from where and how we socialize to how effectively we’re able kick our brains back into gear every morning as we prepare for the workday ahead. Its history is one marked by coincidence, conflict and an altered state of consciousness. While agreement on the precise details that led coffee to dominate modern civilization is hard to come by, there are a few key events in the formation of this cultural and economic phenomenon.

Coffee isn’t actually a bean at all: Whether you have yours out of a mug, doused with cream and sugar, or in a tiny glass cup, it all comes from brewing the roasted seeds of the coffee plant. These seeds, known as coffee beans, are located inside berries grown on the branches of the plant and contain most of its caffeine. The plant itself is indigenous to the Southwestern region of the Red Sea.

There are currently three dominant varieties of the coffee plant growing worldwide: Arabica, Robusta and Liberica. Arabica, which traces its origins to Ethiopia and is now grown across Central America and different parts of Africa, is the most popular of the bunch and produces the highest quality coffee beans. Robusta on the other hand is a little less tasty ,but produces a more efficient yield and is mainly grown in Indonesia and India.

Born in Ethiopia, thanks to a curious goat herder: Almost all accounts of the history of coffee trace its origins to Ethiopia. The most widely circulated tale of its discovery involves a herder who in the 9th century noticed his goats behaving strangely after grazing on a then-unknown kind of berry from a coffee plant. He allegedly tried them out for himself and soon discovered that they produced an energizing effect that delayed his usual sleep time. So the story goes that Ethiopians continued to consume coffee in the form of energy balls that were made up of fruit, bean and animal fat. This was of course a far cry from how coffee is currently prepared: roasted, brewed and served as a beverage. It's not exactly clear how people discovered roasting and brewing coffee, but it seems to have come about through some form of trial and error.

Nurtured in the Middle East for spiritual practice: It wasn’t until the 14th century when Yemeni Sufis began regularly cultivating the seeds of the coffee plant, roasting them and brewing them with water to fuel long hours of spiritual engagement and prayer. Some even say that its stimulating effect were independently observed by a Sufi mystic in Yemen at the same time as it had been in Ethiopia. The story involves similar observations of some overly-excited birds nibbling on the red berries followed by a process of experimentation and accident that eventually led to a more effective method of caffeine extraction.

The 15th century is when coffee really took off after making its way to Cairo and Mecca through Yemen’s Mocha port. Consumption of the beverage was initially restricted to niche religious circles in Cairo, but was quickly spread by merchants across the rest of the territories controlled by the Ottoman Empire at the time. It wasn't until sometime between the 16th and 17th centuries when the Europeans got their hands on coffee, which by some accounts took place through trade with the Ottomans, and according to others through the more nefarious act of seed theft.

The European coffee trade kicked into high gear at the end of the 16th century as the Dutch, followed by the French, the Spanish and the Portuguese began growing their own coffee on colonized land in East Asia, the Caribbean and Brazil.

Coffee and politics go hand in hand? With the introduction of the drink to Middle East capitals came a thriving coffee house culture that drew men into gathering publicly to talk politics, play backgammon and recite poetry. These public spaces formed the basis of a rejuvenated social life that eventually drew the ire of government authorities who feared they might become a breeding ground for social unrest.

Religious authorities were equally distraught at the time, and even linked coffee houses to winehouses in Europe because of the drink’s supposed intoxicating effect. This led to several attempts to bring dissemination of the beverage under control, but efforts in that respect ran flat.

It pissed off the Europeans too: Fear of revolutionary sentiments brewing at these public spaces in England reportedly led King Charles II in 1675 to denounce coffee houses as "places where the disaffected met, and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of his majesty and his ministers." Catholic Ministers, skeptical of coffee’s entrance into European society, even named it the “devil’s drink.”

Today, the coffee trade is huge: It is estimated that over 2 bn cups of coffee are consumed on a daily basis and 550 bn cups annually. Coffee is currently the second most widely traded commodity in the world after oil, and its export business alone is considered to be a USD 20 bn industry. That figure goes up to a total USD 100 bn when factoring in all other components of its supply chain. Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia are currently the world’s largest coffee producers while the US, France and Germany are the biggest importers.

But it faces an uncertain future: The threat of unstable weather patterns produced as a result of climate change, growing demand for beans and the spread of a kind of fungal disease known as coffee rust are putting the global trade under pressure. About half of land used for high-quality coffee will be unproductive by 2050 according to some estimates. Although some companies are working with growers to adapt their crops to the challenges presented by climate change, it could mean that coffee could, down the line, become an unaffordable luxury to many around the world.

LEARN MORE- You can check out this three-part documentary from the good people at PBS called Black Coffee free on Youtube:

• Part 1- The Irresistible Bean: which looks at the early history of coffee and its spread (watch, runtime: 57:44)
• Part 2- Gold in Your Cup: which looks at how the bean became a major economic commodity worth enslaving and whipping out whole countries. (watch, runtime: 57:44).
• Part 3- The Perfect Cup: Learn how the modern coffee industry evolved from the popularity of artisanal coffee to the big chains like Starbucks. (watch, runtime: 57:41)

BONUS- Caffeine is one of four section in Michael Pollan’s This is your mind on plants, the author’s “radical challenge to how we think about drugs.”

24 August (Tuesday): MEED will hold a webinar named Energy Transition in the Middle East.

26-28 August (Thursday-Saturday): Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

September: Delegation of Russian companies to visit Russian Industrial Zone.

1-3 September (Wednesday-Friday): Digi Sign Africa, Cairo International Convention Centre, Cairo, Egypt.

2 September (Thursday): The new EGX mechanism for calculating closing share prices will come into effect.

3-5 September (Friday-Sunday): The World Karate Federation will hold the third competition of the 2021 Karate 1-Premier League in Cairo.

5-7 September (Sunday-Tuesday): The Arab Security Conference, The Nile Ritz-Carlton, Cairo, Egypt.

7-8 September (Tuesday-Wednesday): Euromoney Conferences will host the GlobalCapital Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Forum 2021, featuring Vice Minister of Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk.

7-9 September (Tuesday-Thursday): Egy Health Expo, Al Manara International Conference, Cairo, Egypt.

9 September (Thursday): DevOpsDays Cairo 2021 is being organized by ITIDA and the Software Engineering Competence Center in cooperation with DXC Technology, IBM Egypt and Orange Labs.

12 September (Sunday): International schools begin 2021-2022 academic year

12-15 September (Sunday-Wednesday): Sahara Expo: the 33rd International Agricultural Exhibition for Africa and the Middle East.

15 September (Wednesday): The CFO Leadership & Strategy Summit is taking place in Egypt.

16 September (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

21-22 September (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

22-25 September (Wednesday-Saturday): Cityscape Egypt, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 September-2 October (Thursday-Saturday): Egypt Projects 2021 expo, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 September-8 October (Thursday-Friday): The Cairo International Fair, Cairo International Conference Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 September: Closing of 2021’s first oil and gas tender in the Gulf of Suez, Western Desert, and the Mediterranean.

October: New legislative session begins.

October: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis could visit Egypt in mid this month to discuss ways to boost tourism cooperation between the two countries.

1 October (Friday): Businesses importing goods at seaports will need to file shipping documents and cargo data digitally to the Advance Cargo Information (ACI) system.

1 October (Friday): Expo 2020 Dubai opens.

1 October (Friday): State-owned companies and government service bodies selling goods and services to customers that have not yet signed on to the e-invoicing platform will suffer a host of penalties, including removal from large taxpayer classification, losing access to government services and business, and losing subsidies.

6 October (Wednesday): Armed Forces Day.

7 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Armed Forces Day.

9 October (Saturday): Public schools begin 2021-2022 academic year

11-17 October (Monday-Sunday): IMF + World Bank Annual Meetings.

12-14 October (Tuesday-Thursday): Mediterranean Offshore Conference, Alexandria, Egypt.

18 October (Monday): Prophet’s Birthday.

21 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Prophet’s Birthday.

24-28 October (Sunday-Thursday) Cairo Water Week, Cairo, Egypt.

27-28 October (Wednesday-Thursday) Intelligent Cities Exhibition & Conference, Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski, Cairo, Egypt.

28 October (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

30 October – 4 November (Saturday-Thursday): The first edition of Race The Legends, Egypt.

31 October – 12 November (Sunday-Friday): The 26th UN Climate Change Conference, Glasgow, UK.

November: The French-Egyptian Business Forum is set to take place in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

November: Egypt will host another round of talks to reach a potential Egyptian-Eurasian trade agreement, which can significantly contribute to increasing the volume of Egyptian exports to the Russia-led bloc that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

1-3 November (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Energy exhibition on power and renewable energy, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

2-3 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

1-12 November (Monday-Friday): 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Glasgow, United Kingdom.

29 November-2 December (Monday-Thursday): Egypt Defense Expo.

7-8 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): North Africa Trade Finance Summit.

12-14 December (Sunday-Tuesday): Food Africa Cairo trade exhibition, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

13-17 December: United Nations Convention against Corruption, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

14-19 December (Tuesday-Sunday): The Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater.

14-15 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

16 December (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

14-16 February 2022 (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Petroleum Show, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo, Egypt.

1H2022: The World Economic Forum annual meeting, location TBD.

May 2022: Investment in Logistics Conference, Cairo, Egypt.

16 June 2022 (Thursday): End of 2021-2022 academic year for public schools

27 June-3 July 2022 (Monday-Sunday): World University Squash Championships, New Giza.

**Note to readers: Some national holidays may appear twice above. Since 2020, Egypt has observed most mid-week holidays on Thursdays regardless of the day on which they fall and may also move those days to Sundays. We distinguish below between the actual holiday and its observance.