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Thursday, 17 August 2017

Lamees, come back — please? Pretty please?

It was a night of quiet monotony on the airwaves last night that left us yearning for the return of Lamees Al Hadidi and Amr Adib, who are still out on summer break.

The decision to offer a 50% discount on port fees is part of a larger plan to attract moremaritime traffic and not the result of decreased traffic in the Suez Canal, Mostafa El Deeb, a consultant to the Transport Ministry, told fill-in host Dina Zahra on Hona Al Asema (watch, runtime 7:21). (We have more in the Speed Round, below).

The newly-issued Industrial Permits Act got airtime on Masaa DMC. The act is a “dream come true,” Federation of Egyptian Industries boss and House rep. Mohamed Elsewedy told host Osama Kamal. Older legislation had been especially detrimental to SMEs, who had to go around to 11 offices and incur a lot of additional costs to obtain their licenses, Elsewedy said. The new law cuts down a lot of red tape and eliminates the middlemen involved in licensing procedures, making it infinitely easier to do business in the country.

Under the law, the Industrial Development Authority is obliged to inform applicants within a 14-day period if their request had been rejected, House Industry Committee chair MP Mohamed Samir said. These individuals would then be allowed to appeal a rejection through an IDA committee, he added (watch, runtime: 14:20).

Kamal also had an update on the national highway upgrade project, the first phase of which is now wrapping up. The state is earmarking some EGP 3.5 bn a year for the 3,400 km, EGP 36 bn project (watch, runtime 3:08).

Just say “No” to constitutional change: Meanwhile on Yahduth fi Misr, political commentator Mostafa El Fekki was back with Sherif Amer, talking about recent calls to amend the constitution and extend the presidential term to six years. El Fekki said that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi doesn’t appear “excited about the suggestion,” and that opening the door to constitutional changes so soon would only invite more of the same, “which is risky.”

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