It’s a busy week for: Finance Minister Amr El Garhy, who is due to brief the House of Representatives on all things fiscal and whose team is sorting the executive regulations for the value-added tax after receiving feedback on them from the State Council. The Tax Authority, which ultimately reports to El Garhy, is meeting this week with international oil companies to discuss the VAT status of suppliers to Big Oil. El Garhy was included on Saturday in a meeting with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to discuss the situation in northern Sinai and what the government can do to help Coptic Christians fleeing Islamist terror attacks there, according to a statement from Ittihadiya.

MPs will also be busy this week with the State Contractors Act due to come up for a vote before the House as a whole and the Industry Committee set to resume discussions of a law that would offer tax incentives to domestic automobile manufacturers.

Merkel and El Sisi to inaugurate the new Siemens power plants this week: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will jointly inaugurate the first phase of the Siemens power plants in Beni Suef, Burullus, and the new administrative capital at the end of this week, during Merkel’s two-day visit to Egypt starting this Thursday (2 March), Al Borsa says. Merkel will also meet Pope Tawadros II and Al Azhar’s Sheikh Ahmed El Tayeb.

The German Chancellor’s visit will be a very friendly one: Merkel sang Egypt’s praises in a recent TV interview (runtime 3:19), applauding the country’s “bold economic reform program” and saying it offered “an example to follow” for how a Muslim-majority country can tend to the needs of its Christian minority “who have complete freedom to practice their religious rituals and the government’s full support.” When asked, Merkel said that she does plan to broach the subject of civil society and the NGOs law, but that the visit has a much grander purpose and outlook that extends to the Middle East peace process and helping Egypt achieve stability in the region.

Sound smart: Beyond the standard talk of trade, terrorism and the perpetual canard that is Israeli-Palestinian peace, look for El Sisi and Merkel to talk about Libya (a key issue for Cairo). We’ll also be parsing statements for any sign that Egypt could get a Turkey-style “aid and preferential visa access program” in return for doing more to stem the flow of refugees to Europe. Merkel has been a leading advocate of such a program since last fall. (Background on the migrant pack is here.)