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Monday, 5 December 2016

Last Night’s Talk Shows: Investment policies get props from talk shows; Al Ahram editor-in-chief says cabinet shuffle coming

The final draft of the investment act will be submitted to cabinet on 14 December, Investment Minister Dalia Khorshid told Hona Al Assema’s Lamees El Hadidy in a call-in last night. Speaking on the IPO of state-owned industries, Khorshid repeated that energy sector companies will be on offer first in 1Q17 and will include Alexandria Mineral Oils (AMOC) and ENPPI. She also repeated that the companies will list on international bourses including the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Dubai, which raises significant questions about what the state has done to improve governance at both companies. She also stressed that progress is being made on the Supreme Investment Council’s list of investment incentives (watch, runtime: 11:01).

Chicken watchers, we hope you’re paying attention: The government will re-impose tariffs on poultry imports today, the Ismail cabinet’s spokesperson said (watch, runtime: 2:27).

Lamees then went into lecturing mode, telling the government that they need to speed up the launch of labor-intensive projects and reminding it that the country is still in the midst of a meds shortage (watch: runtime: 2:46). She discussed the prospects of the Health Ministry raising prices of a number of meds by 50% every six months and issued this retort to the minister: “I’m telling him the prices have already increased, if you don’t already know, that is” (watch, runtime: 2:26).

Investment policy was also on Amr Adib’s mind (we wonder if he copies her notes at home too). He praised the Supreme Investment Council for holding a second meeting (aka doing its job as mandated by the president). “Forget about taxes, tariffs and donations — attracting investments is the only way to develop this country,” Adib said (watch, runtime: 6:34).

Sherif Amer’s Yahduth fi Masr discussed the proposed Media Act with Al-Ahram Editor-in-Chief Abdel Hady Allam, who added that a cabinet shuffle is in the works. “President knows exactly which ministers have had disappointing runs and will remove them soon,” Allam said.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim Eissa allocated his episode of Al Qahera Wel Nas to talk about Wahhabism and the role of Saudi Arabia in the region. “Saudi Arabia succeeded in invading Egypt mentally and economically … it is not strange that the most-watched satellite TV channels in the region are owned and funded by Saudi Arabia,” said the host (watch, runtime: 37:40).

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