Happy Monday, friends, and welcome to another relatively busy afternoon. We have a couple of stories developing today, but you’ll want to keep an eye on the USAID’s International Conference on Alternative Financing Opportunities in Egypt, where key members of government are discussing sustainable financing and how these tools fit into our Vision 2030 plans. We have a quick check-in from the conference in Happening Now, below, and will bring you more details in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Online used-car retailer Sylndr raised USD 12.6 mn in a pre-seed round led by Raed Ventures, with the funding earmarked for building the company’s operational capabilities, technology infrastructure and brand awareness, the startup said in a press release (pdf). Founded late last year by Omar El Defrawy and Amr Mazen, the startup aims to facilitate the process of buying, selling and financing the purchases of used cars.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

In a shift away from Ukraine-focused news: The global press is fixated this afternoon on US President Joe Biden saying Washington would intervene militarily to stop a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Speaking in Japan earlier today, Biden said the US’ position on recognizing China’s rulers “as the only legitimate government” remains unchanged, but stressed that China moving to take Taiwan “by force … would dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine.” The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and the New York Times have the story.

HAPPENING NOW- How will Egypt finance the policies needed for Vision 2030? That’s the question Planning Minister Hala El Said, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, IMF Executive Director and UN Special Envoy for Financing the 2030 Agenda Mahmoud Mohieldin, US Chargé d’Affaires Nicole Shampaine, and others have tried to answer at USAID’s International Conference on Alternative Financing Opportunities in Egypt: Towards Sustainable Financing for Development, which runs today and tomorrow. The conference gathers and other representatives of international organizations, to discuss sustainable financing in Egypt.

Egypt’s GDP growth will exceed 5% in 3Q2021-2022, El Said said during the conference, Reuters reports. Egypt had recently trimmed its growth forecast for the financial year to 5.7% from 6.4% due to the economic impact of the war in Ukraine, after recording 9% growth in 1H2021-2022.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Surging food prices on the back of the crisis in Ukraine could put “mns” at risk around the world, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told the Financial Times in an interview in London.
• The Saudi sovereign wealth fund is reportedly considering making a bid to acquire United Bank, 99.9% of which is held by the Central Bank of Egypt.
• Egypt will merge seven or eight state-owned hotels into a single entity ahead of a listing on the EGX, which will be offered to investors in coordination with the Sovereign Fund of Egypt in the coming months, Public Enterprises Minister Hisham Tawfik said.

DID YOU MISS THIS WEEK’S WHAT’S NEXT? Last month, we explored how the government has made artificial intelligence a national priority. We spoke with the former ICT Ministry’s advisor for AI Sally Radwan about the government’s national AI strategy and how it is being implemented (Part 1 | Part 2). In another of our virtual podcast roundtables, we sat down with the companies building AI systems in Egypt to get a bird’s eye view on what’s happening in the sector: Who’s adopting it, how they’re going about it, and what challenges they’re facing.

You can catch the episode on our website here (listen, runtime: 44:01), or tune in via Apple Podcasts | Anghami | Google Podcasts | Spotify). Or you can read edited excerpts of our conversation here.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Direct flights between Cairo and Dublin will launch starting 2 June, the Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement yesterday. EgyptAir will operate four flights a week between the two capitals.

Direct flights between Cairo and Sao Paulo will also be announced soon, Brazilian officials in Cairo were quoted as saying.

The Islamic Development Bank will hold its 2022 annual meetings in Sharm El Sheikh from 1-4 June under the slogan “post-pandemic recovery: resilience and sustainability,” according to a statement from the Planning Ministry. Several Egyptian ministries and representatives from the bank’s 57 member countries and other financial institutions are set to attend the meetings.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect a daytime high of 35°C and a nighttime low of 19°C in the capital city tomorrow, our favorite weather app forecasts.

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