Kuwaiti assault incident, Zamalek building damage top stories on talk shows
A supermarket cashier with a black eye topped the coverage on the airwaves last night. That’s all you need to know to gauge yesterday’s news cycle, which was devoid of anything particularly newsworthy.
Hisham Tawfik on the future of the public sector textile industry: Public Enterprises Minister Hisham Tawfik appeared on Sada El Balad last night for an interview with Azza Mostafa about planned changes to public sector weaving and textiles companies (watch, runtime: 18:14). Here are the highlights:
- Construction on mega-textile factory underway: The ministry has kicked off the project to build the world’s largest textile factory in El Mahalla El Kubra, Tawfik said. The factory is scheduled for completion within 14 months.
- Streamlining the public sector: Thirty-two spinning and weaving companies will be merged into just nine companies, the minister said. This comes as part of government efforts to reduce the bloated public sector that will see state-owned enterprises cut by as much as 25%.
- Ministry to establish new clothes factories: The ministry will set up new factories for manufacturing cotton clothes worth EGP 10 bn, which will begin production within the next two years.
Each of the talking heads were fixated on the story of an Egyptian expat cashier living in Kuwait who was assaulted on the job by a Kuwaiti. El Hadidi phoned Ambassador Hisham Asran, Egypt’s consul general in Kuwait (watch, runtime: 6:31) (watch, runtime: 4:41), while El Hekaya’s Amr Adib spoke with Immigration Minister Nabila Makram (watch, runtime: 4:29), Kuwaiti officials and the victim (watch, runtime: 4:22). Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary also discussed the incident with Makram (watch, runtime: 6:45).
Does construction of the Metro threaten to topple a Zamalek building? Al Kahera Alaan’s Lamees El Hadidi spoke with Transport Minister Kamel El Wazir, who discussed a statement by the National Authority for Tunnels denying reports work on the Cairo Metro was responsible for serious damage caused to a building on Zamalek’s Brazil Street and the outer wall of the Bahraini embassy. El Wazir said a team has been dispatched to assess the damage, the building has been evacuated and residents have been provided with EGP 30k to seek alternative accommodation while the problem is being resolved (watch, runtime: 16:35). El Hekaya’s Amr Adib also spoke with El Wazir to discuss the incident (watch, runtime: 14:36).