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Thursday, 20 February 2020

Last night’s talk shows for Thursday, 20 February 2020

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's visit to Cairo was the topic du jour on the airwaves last night. We have more on what went down during the first day of Lukashenko’s trip in Diplomacy + Foreign Trade, below.

Why is Belarus important to us? Trade and tourism: Al Hayah Al Youm's Hossam Hadad phoned former Assistant Foreign Minister Mohamed Hegazy, who noted that Belarus was a key industrial hub of the Soviet Union, making it a good trade partner for Egypt. The country is also a major source market for Egyptian tourism, with Egypt being the second most popular destination for Belarusian holidaymakers, Hegazy told Hadad (watch, runtime: 4:31). Belarus and Ukraine are excellent compensation for the current shortage of Russian tourism amid the ban of Russian flights to the Red Sea, Hegazy said. Masaa DMC’s Ramy Radwan also had coverage (watch, runtime: 3:04).

The recovery of Egypt’s covid-19 patient was another topic of interest to the talking heads, with both Masaa DMC’s Ramy Radwan (watch, runtime: 12:46) and Yahduth fi Masr’s Sherif Amer (watch, runtime: 4:13) taking note. We recap the story in What We’re Tracking Today, above.

A recap of key economic indicators, including GDP growth, in 1H2019-2020, which Planning and Economic Development Minister Hala El Said presented to cabinet yesterday, was also on Radwan’s radar (watch, runtime: 2:54). We have chapter and verse in this morning’s Speed Round, below.

Forbidden (mahraganat) fruit is the sweetest: A decision by the Egyptian Musician Syndicate earlier this week to ban all mahraganat (electronic folk) performances at public venues will actually make the genre more widespread, politician and thinker Mostafa El Feki told Amer (watch, runtime: 2:28).

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