Good morning, dear readers: Ahead of the busy news flow heading towards us later this week, we have a short but sweet issue today, with news that that Gulf wealth funds are thinking of getting involved in Egypt’s upcoming desalination tenders as well as the latest installment of our ongoing CEO poll, featuring Travco Holiday’s Moataz Sedky.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY-

The Egyptian Private Equity Association is hosting a healthcare summit at the Semiramis Intercontinental Cairo. The event will be held under the auspices of the finance and planning ministries. You can check out the agenda here (pdf).

It’s the final day of the Nebu Expo for Gold and Jewelry at the Egypt International Exhibition Center, which brings together 35 international exhibitors and more than 500 buyers from the Middle East and Africa.

The transport ministers of Nile Basin countries will meet today to discuss preparing feasibility studies for the second phase of the Lake Victoria-Mediterranean river link, the Transport Ministry said yesterday. Representatives from the regional economic group Comesa and the African Union will also be in attendance.

THIS WEEK-

Will we finally close an IMF facility this week? The IMF’s executive board will discuss Egypt’s request for a new extended fund facility on Friday, 16 December. Egypt and the Fund reached a staff-level agreement for a USD 3 bn, 46-month loan program at the end of October, but the arrangement needs the sign off from the board before the loan can start to be disbursed.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will join other African leaders in Washington for the three-day US-Africa Leaders Summit which starts tomorrow. The event will be the first meeting of African heads of state and a US president in Washington since 2014 and the biggest international gathering in the city since before the covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

On the agenda: Russia’s war in Ukraine, climate change, trade and covid-19 among other things, according to the Associated Press. President Joe Biden will address a US-Africa business meeting, hold meetings with individual African heads of state and host a dinner at the White House. It is unknown whether El Sisi will hold talks with the US president during his stay in the US capital.

A play for Africa: As Russia and China strengthen their ties with the continent, the summit is part of the US’ play to increase its influence among African leaders following four years of disengagement under Donald Trump. The administration will offer a sweetener and declare support for making the African Union a permanent member of the G20, a long-standing ambition of African nations that the Washington Post suggests could help the US get them on side on issues such as the war in Ukraine and climate change.

PSA- Companies have until Thursday to register with the Tax Authority’s e-invoicing system. Only 150k companies had signed up to the new system ahead of the previous deadline of 15 December, according to the Tax Authority’s most recent tally at the end of November, which is well below a sought goal of 1 mn companies to register under the system.

REMEMBER- This deadline no longer applies to the self-employed: The Finance Ministry pushed the deadline for self-employed professionals — including doctors, pharmacists and lawyers — to 30 April 2023 after widespread opposition to the system.

IT’S FED WEEK- The Federal Reserve will start its two-day policy meeting tomorrow: Following several months of positive inflation data, the Fed is expected to raise interest rates by a smaller 50 bps, ending a string of four consecutive 75-bps hikes. That said, a lot will depend on tomorrow’s inflation release: analysts expect consumer price growth to have further slowed in November to 7.3%, allowing the Fed to ease the pace of its rate hikes. But a hotter-than-expected print could see the central bank go ahead with yet another super-sized hike.

Events in Washington could influence what happens in our neck of the woods next Thursday when the Central Bank of Egypt meets for its final policy meeting of 2022.

WORLD CUP- The World Cup semi-finals take place tomorrow and Wednesday (all times CLT):

• Argentina v Croatia tomorrow at 9pm
• Morocco v France on Wednesday at 9pm.

THE BIG STORIES ABROAD-

Signs of a diplomatic breakthrough in Ukraine? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held talks with the leaders of the US, Turkey and France yesterday in what Reuters notes is an unusual amount of diplomatic activity.

Scandal in Brussels: Four people including two MEPs have been charged by a Belgian judge and EUR 600k in cash has been seized by police as part of an investigation into allegations that Qatar has tried to bribe European parliamentarians, the Financial Times reports.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES-

• #1- Debt trouble for developing economies: Debt servicing payments for the world’s poorest countries are forecast to soar 35% y-o-y to USD 62 bn in 2022, the World Bank said in a report (pdf), in one of the highest annual increases in the past two decades. 2023 probably won’t be any easier, either, as higher interest rates, weaker currencies, and slower growth raise debt burdens further.
• #2- European tech companies lost more than USD 400 bn this year, with the combined value of public and private European tech companies falling to USD 2.7 tn from a USD 3.1 tn peak in 2021, according to VC firm Atomico.
• #3- SPAC-tacular downfall? Companies that went public via SPAC mergers during the 2020-2021 boom for the controversial listing mechanism are struggling to meet proper bookkeeping standards ahead of year-end earnings season, the Financial Times reports. Nearly half of a sample of companies that went public via SPAC in the US over the past two years admitted to “inefficient internal controls” in their quarterly accounting, according to research by Bedrock cited by the salmon-colored paper.

ICYMI-

Missed this week’s Inside Industry? In our weekly vertical exploring all things industry and manufacturing, we looked at the recent turmoil in the local gold market.

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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Enactus Egypt and the Citi Foundation launched the second phase of social entrepreneurship program Impact@Work, according to a press release (pdf). Some 54 university teams representing 9.7k students from various governorates will participate in the competition in July 2023 to demonstrate their efforts in generating a social impact based on their entrepreneurial ideas. The winning team will compete in the Enactus World Cup in the Netherlands in October 2023.

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

*** It’s Blackboard day: We have our weekly look at the business of education in Egypt, from pre-K through the highest reaches of higher ed.

In today’s issue: What are schools and universities doing to equip students with much-needed soft skills?