Egypt’s Suez Canal has been at the heart of trade between Africa, Europe, and Asia since it opened in 1869. Marwan El Sammak, Chairman and CEO of Ship & Crew – Egypt, says, “It is a brilliant way to connect [Asia and Europe] using an all-water solution.” However, that status is under increasing pressure as more countries, particularly in Asia, search for alternative routes. Further complicating the situation for the Suez Canal is that some routes are faster and cost less. They also can be less vulnerable to blockage and accommodate increasingly bigger vessels. “The blocking of the Suez Canal…
Author: Tamer Hafez
One of the hallmarks of the global economic system since World War II is that cross-border trade gets easier with time. “Global trade, in many ways, makes the world go round,” said a January note from the World Bank. “Think of any electronic good, clothing item or perhaps a chocolate bar; all everyday items which are in consumers’ hands and homes [are] because of global trade.” That openness created “better jobs, reduced poverty and increased economic opportunities,” said Mona Haddad, global director for trade, investment and competitiveness at the World Bank Group in January. International trade “has lifted more than…
With a career spanning over 30 years in banking and finance, Ahmed Issa, the former CEO of retail banking at CIB, Egypt’s largest listed bank, has a proven track record of being a “natural-born” builder. In 1998, he was one of the three founders of CIBC, later called CI Capital, which grew to be one of Egypt’s top brokerages. “That is when I realized my interest is in building new things,” Issa says. “The bank identified me as a potential leader [of new projects]. As such, they put me on track to either lead or be part of the leadership…
When the Federal Reserve (Fed) held overnight interbank rates steady at 5.25% in June, experts said it was a temporary pause. “The Fed ‘skipped’ a rate hike in June in favor of gathering more data,” said Preston Caldwell, a senior U.S. economist at Morningstar Research Services, in July. As expected, Fed Chair Jerome Powell on July 26 announced a 0.25% hike in overnight interbank interest rates to 5.5%, the highest since 2001. The possibility of another increase is uncertain. During the July announcement, Powell said, “I would say it’s certainly possible that we will raise funds again … if the…
Accounting for 12% of all global trade and 30% of international container traffic in 2020, the Suez Canal is vital to countries in Asia and Europe, according to Freightify, a platform for freight forwarders. “The Suez Canal is also a key regional shipping hub for oil and hydrocarbons from Asia and the Middle East to Europe,” the company said in a 2022 blog. It is “responsible for transporting about 8% of the world’s oil and 8% of liquified natural gas.” Not content with those impressive figures, the government wants to increase revenue from the 193-kilometer waterway by raising the number…
Climate change, GDP growth prospects, and awareness of environmental and sustainability issues are redefining tourists’ expectations worldwide. “Several emerging trends are shaping the way people approach travel in the post-pandemic era,” Adir Ron, chief marketing officer for Duve, a tech solutions provider to hotels, wrote in an April blog on the International Luxury Hotel Association website. “These trends are reshaping the travel industry and providing exciting opportunities for both travelers and the travel industry alike.” Facilities targeting tourists, such as hotels and developments serving leisure travelers, are responding to those changing needs. In February, Michael Parker, co-founder and CEO of…
Since COVID-19 started, Egypt, like many middle-income developing countries, has suffered from soaring inflation and public debt, local currency depreciation, and mounting pressure to implement structural reforms in exchange for financing. Central bank (CBE) data shows that Egypt has witnessed inflation rise to four-decade highs, the pound has devalued to unprecedented lows, and external debt has increased nearly 40% since January 2020. Conventionally, the government has sought assistance from the United States, EU, and multilateral international financial institutions like the World Bank, IMF, and EBRD to secure a significant portion of its dollar needs. Their approval came with an added…
One outcome of China’s urban household disposable income per capita increasing by 480% from 2003 to 2023, as per data aggregator Trading Economics, is that more Chinese than ever can afford to travel abroad. A 2018 note from Fliggy, an online travel agency owned by Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group, said, “The wealthy, the middle class, the young, the old — everyone is heading abroad.” In 2019, just before COVID-19 lockdowns, “Mainland China had the largest outbound travel market in the world, both in number of trips and total spent,” said Guang Chen, a partner at McKinsey & Company’s Hong…
For Egypt, tourism has long been a major source of foreign currency. The Central Bank (CBE) said that in 2022, the tourism sector brought in more dollars ($12.2 billion) than FDI ($6.7 billion) or the Suez Canal ($8 billion). According to the CBE, last year the sector was the fastest-growing source of foreign currency (up 37% compared to 2021), outpacing the Suez Canal (up 26.9%), exports (up 18.2%), remittances (dropped 10%) and FDI (down 72.7%). Tourism’s growth trajectory continues in 2023. Amr El Kady, CEO of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Board, a government body, told CNBC in May that tourist numbers…
For companies, the pandemic was a watershed moment, changing how they operate “by leaps and bounds compared to five years ago,” said an Ernst & Young (EY) report published in July on “Reimagining Tax Functions” in emerging markets. “What seemed to be a forced adaptation to alternate ways of working is now a reality and opens opportunities that organizations wish to realize.” Companies in developing markets are eager to implement such change. Almost 57% of respondents to the attached EY survey said they “are welcoming this change.” An integral part of the adaptation process is ensuring a company’s tax functions cope with…