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Wednesday, 5 October 2022

One step closer to harsher penalties for building on farmland + World Bank gives us tub-tubs on governance

Illegally building on agricultural land could soon cost you up to EGP 10 mn and up to five years in prison: The House’s Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee approved amendments to the Agriculture Act introducing harsher penalties for illegally building on agricultural land, after cabinet greenlit the amendments earlier this year. Parliament will discuss the amendments when MPs reconvene on 16 October.

The World Bank is giving us improved marks on governance: Egypt improved on five out of six sub-indicators in the World Bank’s latest global governance rankings. Our overall score in the Worldwide Governance Aggregate Indicators (WGIs) jumped to 27.5 from 25.6 in 2020, according to the World Bank figures. The WGI measures political stability, rule of law, control of corruption, government effectiveness (the only metric where we didn’t see an improvement), voice and accountability, and regulatory quality. The Planning Ministry picked up the news.

Methodology: The WGIs are based on more than 30 data sources produced by survey institutes, think tanks, NGOs, international organizations, and private sector firms. They have been covering over 200 nations since 1996. You can check out Egypt’s rankings over the past two decades here.

Other things we’re keeping an eye on this morning:

  • Alborg Scan opened a new EGP 50 mn branch in Maadi and has three more branches in the pipeline worth a combined EGP 200 mn. (Statement, pdf)
  • An Egyptian-Portuguese investment forum in Lisbon sees 80 companies looking at opportunities in Egypt’s textiles, construction, and pharma sectors. (Statement)
  • The National Fund of Greece has become a member of the “collaborative network” of European, Middle East, and North Africa (EMENA) sovereign funds, joining the Egyptian, Maltese, French, and Spanish sovereign funds. (Statement, pdf)

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