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Tuesday, 28 March 2017

What we’re tracking on 28 March 2017

** It’s the last day for our 1Q2017 Reader Survey answer all the questions here (it won’t take a minute) and you could be one of at least two lunch people we take to lunch at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza. You’ll get to invite a friend / colleague. The survey will close at 5pm. Poll results on Sunday.

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Central bank governor Tarek Amer made an appearance at a conference yesterday, his first since returning from Germany after his surgery, Al Mal reported. Amer said the banking sector is doing its best to serve the economy, but it cannot do everything on its own. He says that now, the central bank managed to clear around USD 5 bn in imported goods that had been held in ports and stressed that foreign reserves will continue to rise. Amer also noted that the business environment after the float of the EGP has improved — and that the banking sector is now stronger because of it and could handle shocks. He also said there are no concerns about Egypt’s ability to repay its debt obligations in 2018. Amer passed the buck to the government when he was asked about the timing of Banque du Caire and AAIB’s scheduled IPOs, saying the Ismail government holds the reins on the projects.

AmCham’s investment conference is today from 9am-4pm at the Cairo Marriott. Investment Minister Sahar Nasr will give a keynote, and there panels on investing in consumer sectors, private equity and real estate. Ahmed Kouchouk, deputy minister of finance, is also due to speak.

If you were hoping for the UK to come to its senses on the electronics ban soon,we have bad news for you: UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd did not rule out expanding the ban on laptops and iPads on flight cabins to include all inbound flights coming into the UK, and not just the six Middle Eastern countries including Egypt. “It’s difficult to say how far this will go, whether we may at some stage arrive at that place,” she told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

…They may take our laptops, but they’ll never take our sense of humorrr: France 24 dives into some rather funny trolling by regional airlines into Trump’s laptop ban. Royal Jordanian in particular is on fire.

Three more for you tech nerds out there this morning: Apple has released updates to iOS (for iPads and iPhones) and to macOS and watchOS. There’s not much in the way of ‘obvious’ new features, but the iOS update to iOS is pretty key to future-proof your device, it seems (it’s all about a new file system and takes a long time to run. Samsung will official unveil its Galaxy S8 tomorrow. Business Insider has a roundup of the leaks and expectations. And whether you’re a skeptic or a true believer, hard core nerds will have an opinion on Android co-founder Andy Rubin’s rumored first smart phone. It’s near-bezel-less.

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