Good afternoon, wonderful people. The very busy week we anticipated this morning has yet to materialize — but it’s only Sunday.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

The CBE’s financial inclusion drive, in numbers: Egypt’s financial inclusion rate — the percentage of citizens above the age of 16 with “transactional” bank accounts — has grown 131% between 2016 and 2022, according to a Central Bank of Egypt report (pdf) published today. There are now nearly 40 mn adults in Egypt who are banked, the report says.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

Leading the conversation in the international business press this afternoon: Protests in Shanghai against China’s strict covid-19 rules. Demonstrations broke out in the country’s financial hub overnight after hundreds of people attended vigils for 10 people who died in a high-rise building fire on Thursday. Social media users have suggested that the people were unable to flee from the building in time because it was partially locked down — a claim authorities have denied. The story is on the front pages of Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times.

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

• Why GSK’s Mohamed El Dababy thinks exports and FDI are the way forward: After reading our five-step recipe for turning Egypt into a global export hub and FDI magnet, participating CEOs — including GSK General Manager Mohamed El Dababy — agreed to answer two questions on the record.
• Qatar’s sovereign fund wants the port of Safaga: The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is reportedly in talks with the Madbouly government to develop and manage the port of Safaga under a 25-year contract.
• Israel’s NewMed plans floating LNG expansion: Israel’s NewMed will likely build a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to boost energy exports to Europe from its Leviathan gas field in Israel, instead of a pipeline that links Israeli fields to Egypt’s LNG terminals.

We’re in the countdown stage for the Enterprise Climate X Forum with just nine days to go before we meet with some of you in Cairo at the Grand Egyptian Museum on Tuesday, 6 December 2022. Invitations are out, and judging by the emails we’ve gotten, it sounds like some of you’re as excited as we are.

*** YOU MUST REGISTER TO ATTEND by clicking the link on your registration email. Attendance is by invitation only and your invite is personalized. You will require a special QR code to gain access to the GEM on event day — we’ll be sending them out at the end of the week.

Have you not received an invitation? If you’re a C-suite exec, business owner, climate professional, DFI staff, investor, or senior banker, please email us at climatexrsvp@enterprisemea.com to signal your interest, letting us know your name, title, and where you work. You can learn more on our conference website here.

The agenda: We get underway with a networking breakfast at 8am CLT. Then we jump right in with live interviews and panels made up of CEOs, execs, bankers, and development finance folks, who will mull over a variety of topics, including:

• Is there truly a business case for green hydrogen in Egypt?
• What policies, regulation and legislation should the government be looking at to drive investment in the green economy?
• Practical advice from industry insiders on how to get your climate-focused business started.
• How do we finance our green transition?
• How startups and VCs are embracing the green economy.

*** It’s Inside Industry day — your weekly briefing of all things industrial in Egypt. Inside Industry focuses each Sunday on what it takes to turn Egypt into a manufacturing and export powerhouse, ranging from initial investment and planning to product distribution, through to land allocation to industrial processes, supply chain management, labor, automation and technology, inputs and exports, regulation and policy.

In today’s issue: We look at Green Star, the recently-announced government program laying out guidelines for companies that will favor low-carbon products for government purchases. The program will be offering a number of incentives to businesses compliant with the new environmental standards.

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Payment and fintech conference Pafix will be held as part of Cairo ICT 2022 from today until Wednesday at the Egypt International Exhibition Centre in New Cairo.

The US and Russia will hold nuclear talks in Cairo this week: Washington and Moscow will discuss resuming mutual nuclear inspections during week-long talks from Tuesday, 29 November through to 6 December, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, according to CNN.

PSA- The deadline to apply for the Chicago Booth Executive Program in El Gouna has been pushed one week to next Sunday, 4 December. The two-week program, which kicks off in March 2023, offers executives from Egyptian public and private sector the skills to help them “become a better leader for your organization and support Egypt’s growth in the years ahead.” You can find more information here.

☀️TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect a partially cloudy day tomorrow with temperatures expected to hit 23°C during the day before falling to 13°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.