Egyptian Economic Performance (16-11-2006) A. The CBE monthly report The CBE monthly report was released on November 14th, highlighting the major economic indicators as follows: 1. The net foreign reserves at the CBE increased to reach 24.1 bn USD by the end of last December, thus covering 9.5 months of commodity imports. 2. The total deposits of the banking sector apart from the CBE increased to reach 581.9 bn EGP by the end of last August with an increase of 4.7 bn EGP compared to last July. 3. As for commodity trade, the report pointed out that the value of foreign trade reached 48.9 bn USD in the fiscal year 2005/2006 with a growth of 28.6% compared to 2004/2005, meanwhile the United States of America is considered to be Egypt’s first trade partner accounting for 23.3% of the total trade value. B. Cooperation with the World Bank: 1. On November 12th, two loan agreements were signed with the World Bank, according to the first agreement, the World Bank is committed to offer Egypt a loan of 500 million USD for developing the financial and banking sector within a plan that was agreed upon 2 years ago, meanwhile during his visit to Egypt from the 24th to the 29th of current November, the president of the African Bank will sign an agreement for a complementary loan of 500 million USD for the same purpose, this means that the total credit for developing the financial sector will amount to one bn USD divided equally between the World Bank and the African Bank. 2. According to the second agreement with the World Bank, the bank is committed to offer another loan of 37.1 million USD to the Egyptian Mortgage Company with the aim of creating a mechanism for liquidity as well as updating the property rights listing system. 3. It is worth mentioning that these agreements come within a wider strategy between Egypt and the World Bank covering the period 2006/2009, according to which the year 2007 will witness the signing of a number of agreements among which are the agreement for the Tebeen electricity power station and the agreement for developing the railway sector. C. Cooperation with France : 1- On November 9th, the Minister of Trade and Industry visited France leading a delegation including 40 chairmen and representatives of Egyptian companies. During the first meeting of the Egyptian French Business Presidential Council attended by the French Minster of Foreign Trade, the Egyptian minister assured the positive developments in the bilateral relations between the two countries highlighted by a 41% increase in trade during the first half of the current year which is projected to reach 2.1 bn Euro by the end of this year. 2- On the other hand, the minister of trade participated in the seminar titled “The Egyptian Economy Towards Development” which was organized by the French Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with the Arab-French Chamber of Commerce with the participation of the members of the Joint Business Presidential Council in addition to representatives from 90 French companies. 3- On a similar note, the minister held meetings with the French grain exporters for the aim of benefiting from the French experience in establishing new grannies and restructuring old ones. 4- Additionally, another 3 memorandums of understanding were signed with the French side namely; • Agreement with the French Clothing Association on training programs for workers in the clothing sector. • Agreement between the faculty of engineering at Cairo University and University of Roubaix to organize joint educational programs in weaving industry. • Agreement signed by the Egyptian Exports Council For Wooden Industries for the transfer of French technology in wooden industries. 5- It is worth mentioning that the trade balance between Egypt and France is projected to equalize for the first time by the end of this year taken into account the liquid natural gas (LNG) exports to France which account for about 10% of the total supplies of LNG for France. Moreover, according the EU statistics, the value of trade between the two countries witnessed a major increase to read 1180 million Euro during the first half of 2006, of which 490.3 million Euro were Egyptian exports to France and 690.9 were Egyptian imports from France. D. Cooperation with Japan : 1- Within the framework of success achieved by Japanese companies operating in Egypt, it was agreed upon that the Japanese company Copee Bosan, one of the largest food distribution companies in Japan, will invest 1.2 bn USD in the agriculture of 7500 feddans in Qena governerate as well as establishing a relevant complex in Nagea Hamadi for the aim of exporting the total production to the Japanese market. 2- It is worth mentioning that the current year has witnessed a significant growth in the trade relations between the 2 countries as a reflection of the improvement of performance of both economies, thus resulting in an increase in the value of trade between Egypt and Japan to read 796.2 million USD during the first half of 2006 versus 478 million USD during the same period of 2005, moreover Japan is likely to be ranked the 6th in terms of FDI in Egypt. 3- On the other hand, the Japanese official assistance to Egypt reached its peak in the fiscal year 2005/2006 to read 500 million USD in the form of grants and facilitated loans, among which are 2 loan agreements projects on major projects , namely; 300 million USD for the Egyptian Museum and 41 million USD for combating industrial pollution. Thus, Egypt has become the 9th largest receiver of bilateral Japanese assistance and the first in the Middle East and Africa. This trend is likely to be enhanced in the future in view of the Japanese announcement of increasing assistance to developing countries by 10 bn USD in the next 5 years as well as doubling official assistance to African countries in the next 3 years. E. Developments in the Energy Sector: 1- On November 7th , the 10th International NGV (natural gas for vehicles) Conference and Exhibition was  held in Egypt for the first time after the selection of  the Executive council of the International Association of Natural Gas Vehicles IANGV to Egypt , as the first country in Africa and the Middle East to hold the conference The Conference was attended by the ministers of petroleum and environment as well as  the Chairman of the IANGV in addition to chairmen and officials of more than 100 international companies from 30 countries. During the conference, the minister of petroleum stated that the Ministry of Petroleum has put on top of its priorities and policies, the expansion of natural gas domestically especially in untraditional domains such as its use as a fuel for cars and opening new frontiers in its utilization, meanwhile an integrated plan. was set to increase the number of cars working by natural gas to reach 100 thousand and the number of fuelling stations to reach 200 by the end of 2010. 2- Within the framework of diversifying sources of energy and preserving part of the petroleum and natural gas reserves, an agreement was signed between the General Authority of Mineral Resources and a group  of Canadian companies led by Centurion, according to which Centurion will undertake the feasibility studies on extracting petroleum products from certain clay rocks.