Economics and business were back in the limelight on the airwaves yesterday as the nation’s talking heads fixated on the CBE’s bid to revive manufacturing and the government’s structural reforms, among other topics.

Factory revival initiative moving forward: A committee with members from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and the Egyptian Federation of Investors Associations has managed to resolve debt-related problems for 16 major factories with bad loans of over EGP 10 mn each as part of the second phase of a CBE and government-led initiative, Al Hayah Al Youm’s Hossam Hadad reports (watch, runtime: 5:25). The initiative has just entered its second phase, which targets factories that have been struggling post-2011 and have unfulfilled debt obligations. Phase one of the initiative saw local banks call off any legal action they’re taking against smaller factories with bad loans of less than EGP 10 mn. We have more on this here.

Over 4.5k factories have halted production due to theft, sabotage, and lack of funding following the 2011 revolution, economist Mostafa Badra told Hadad. Those factories have been slapped a combined EGP 100 bn from international courts (for several reasons, including falling back on deliveries and supplier payments) despite the source of their financial strain coming from factors “outside their control,” says Badra.

Madbouly briefs World Bank delegation on business, economic reforms: Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly and International Cooperation Minister Rania Al Mashat briefed the World Bank Group team responsible for preparing the global ease of doing business report on structural reforms, Hadad noted (watch, runtime: 1:17).

Mahmoud Mohieldin’s appointment as UN special envoy gets special treatment: Masaa DMC’s Ramy Radwan celebrated in a 10-minute segment the appointment of veteran economist Mohamed Mohieldin as a UN special envoy for financing the 2030 development goals (watch, runtime: 10:47). We have the story in Speed Round, below.