Watani
Published by Watani Printing and
Publishing Corporation
27, Abdel-Khaleq Tharwat St.
Cairo - Egypt
202-23936051 Tel
Fax 202-23935946
Website: www.wataninet.com
Email: [email protected]
Editorial
Watani’s
week of
reckoning
Youssef Sidhom
Sunday
Editor-in-chief
Managing Editor
Youssef Sidhom
Samia Sidhom
For the first time since Watani was founded in
1958 and since Watani Corporation for Printing and
Publishing was established in 1994 as an Egyptian
public stock company that issues Watani newspaper,
shareholders were invited for an extraordinary
general assembly to vote on whether the corporation
should keep up its activity or should be dissolved.
The vote is required by the Egyptian law and the
corporation’s basic bylaws once the losses incurred by
the corporation exceed half its capital.
Such a situation may be ‘all in a day’s work’ for
investors and businessmen when dissolving or
liquidating a losing business is the wiser decision.
This stands true in case of companies that deal in
industrial or commercial activity or in consumer
services. However, when the corporation in question
is active in media work that undertakes a national
enlightenment mission, the measures are different;
the matter requires prudent endeavour to save the
business and empower it to carry on with its mission.
Expressing deep appreciation of the role and
mission Watani is undertaking in the media
field, the shareholders who took part in Watani’s
recent general assembly were unanimously
against dissolving the corporation. They said
they understood the causes for the pile-up of
losses so that, over the last three years, they
exceeded half the capital. These transient causes
relate mainly to a decline in advertising as a
consequence of the economic downturn in postArab Spring Egypt; revenue from advertisements
is the mainstay of the finances of any media
corporation. A positive indication, however, was
the fact that Watani’s losses in 2014 were 25 per
cent less than its losses in 2013. The shareholders
expressed confidence that the corporation would
phase out its losses over the coming two years,
and thus unanimously voted for the business to
keep going.
Many Watani readers and friends had been
gripped with worry once the invitation for the
extraordinary general assembly was announced.
Several called us to express concern at the possibility
of discontinuing the 57-year-old mission of the
paper. Watani’s editorial family held its breath as
it considered the consequences of dissolving the
corporation. The final result, however, put an end
to the worries and promised a confident future.
The general assembly elected a new board of
directors to run the corporation over the coming
three years (2015 – 2018). The composition of
the new board is again cause for optimism and
confidence in the future, since the number of
promising young people form a majority among its
10 May 2015
2 Bashans (Pashons) 1731
21 Ragab 1436
Issue 743
Year 15
ranks. Following is a list of the names of the new
board’s eleven members, arranged alphabetically
according to surname:
• Maryse Adly Abdel-Baqi
• Adel Atef Azmy
• Victor Salama Guirguis
• Maged Halim Nashed
• Mounir Azmy Rizkallah
• Hani Adel Seif
• Dina Youssef Sidhom
• Samia Antoun Sidhom
• Youssef Antoun Sidhom
• Amir Fouad Surial
• Makary Armanious Surour
Now that the critical week has ended on a positive
note, Watani carries on as it looks forward to the
support of its readers and friends, those who firmly
believe in its mission.
Tricky turn for Egypt’s car industry
The announcement had the effect of a bombshell. Earlier this month
Mercedes Benz revealed it would exit the car assembly scene in Egypt. The
move was so stunning that Mercedes had to issue an explanation that it was not
exiting the Egyptian market in full but was closing its passenger car assembly
line, and that such cars would be exclusively imported into Egypt. The reason
Mercedes gave was that the implementation of reduced tariffs on Europeanmade passenger cars, as stipulated by a free trade agreement between Egypt
and the European Union, reduces the price of these cars on the market and
consequently renders their local assembly economically non-feasible. In
simpler words, this means that it would cost less to import a European car
into Egypt than to produce it locally.
Duty-free by 2019
Despite public shock, industrialists and traders had known all along that
the Mercedes move was bound to come, and that other local assemblers of
European cars would follow suite. But this is not the brunt of the problem;
European cars assembled in Egypt constitute an insignificant fraction of the
Egyptian passenger car market. According to industry sources, Mercedes
produces no more than 4000 passenger cars a year whereas the total
production in Egypt comes close to an annual 100,000 cars. The real issue is
that the reduced custom duties on imported European cars—according to the
Egypt-EU Association Agreement, custom duties should be decreased 10 per
cent every year until they are totally phased out in 2019—would significantly
reduce their prices on the market, thus putting non-European cars at a severe
disadvantage. Who would buy an Asian car, whether imported or assembled
in Egypt, if its price would buy a German car, for instance? In a nutshell, the
new custom duties look set to wreak havoc with the Egyptian car market.
The EU-Egypt Association Agreement, a free trade pact signed in 2001 and
in force since 2004, aims at gradually eliminating duties on the agricultural
and manufactured goods exchanged between the signatories. Customs have
since been subject to an annual reduction of 525- per cent according to the
nature of the product. As far as passenger cars of EU origin are concerned,
they should sell on the Egyptian market duty-free by 2019.
Similar agreements were also signed between Egypt and both Turkey and
Morocco, regional giants in the car production field.
Losing business
Local producers of passenger cars have been vocal in their call to the
government to do something about the situation. GB Auto, the largest car
assembler and distributor in Egypt, voiced fears that the lower tariffs on
cars imported into Egypt from Europe, Turkey, and Morocco will distort
competition and squeeze local producers out of the market. Raouf Ghabbour,
chief executive of GB Auto, called for lower tariffs on cars from the US and
Asia, to balance the market. GB assembles Hyundai vehicles and distributes
Mazda and Geely cars in Egypt.
Mr Ghabbour told the media that, as tariffs on European cars are
progressively reduced, the car assembly business in Egypt will be completely
loss-making.
“No one will ever think of investing in that field,” he said. He demanded that
the government provide subsidies to local assemblers in order to help them
move into car manufacture, thus creating jobs and generating hard currency.
He estimated that such a move could secure Egyptian manufactured cars for
70 per cent of domestic demand by 2018, with the additional export of half the
capacity of the local factories.
Mr Ghabbour did not expound on what he meant by ‘subsidy’, but analysts
have widely taken it to express a package that balances custom duties and
taxes, and involves favourable terms of land lease, marketing incentives, sales
benefits, and other tools of favoured status treatment.
As matters stand, Mr Ghabbour said, a government policy that appears to
favour imports over locally-produced cars could undermine Egypt’s efforts
to raise the country’s foreign reserves which have been running low since
the Arab Spring uprising in 2011, and are critical for the import of food and
energy.
Latent problems
Yehia Zananiri, Head of the Customs Committee in the Federation of
Katrine Faragallah
Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, says that the recent decision by MercedesBenz Egypt, (The Egyptian German Automotive Company EGA) to exit the
car assembly business is bound to negatively impact the Egyptian automotive
industry.
“Mercedes will lose nothing,” he says, “but Egypt stands to lose a lot.”
“Once Mercedes announces it is halting its car assembly operation in
Egypt because of unfavourable conditions in the car industry sector, and that
assembling cars in Egypt is no longer profitable, Egypt’s reputation on the
global market will suffer.
“Yet we should use the current predicament to carefully diagnose what
is wrong with the car industry and trade sector,” Mr Zananiri says. “The
Mercedes decision constitutes a warning that existing industrial and
commercial regulations need amendment; otherwise, many industries
will follow suite. Tax-related or labour-related problems might have been
factors that augmented the situation and finally worked to drive Mercedes
out. These problems may point at investment impediments that need to be
tackled,” he warns.
On a different note, Mr Zananiri explains that the inputs to car manufacturing
have not been subject to the same process of customs elimination. While in the
future Egyptian car shoppers can enjoy a wider selection of cheaper imported
cars, the local car industry will face a huge problem as their manufactured
cars eventually become more expensive than imported ones. “It is therefore
important that the government listens to the complaints of car manufacturers
and do something about the customs duty on the inputs to car production,”
he advises.
US and Asian car companies operating in Egypt will also face problems
since the reduced tariffs do not apply to them. It is important that Egypt
should listen to them and come up with appropriate solutions.
Export oriented
Engineer Ali Tawfik, Head of the Egyptian Auto Feeders Union (EAFU),
confirms that the ultimate elimination of customs on imported European
cars is definitely a huge blow not only to local car manufacturers but to car
feeding factories as well, and expresses concern regarding the future of the
automotive industry in Egypt.
Mr Tawfik laments the fact that Egypt does not export locally produced
passenger cars to Europe. Morocco and other African countries, he says,
welcome the manufacture of European cars in their factories then export the
cars back to Europe. “Why don’t we do the same in Egypt? Why don’t we
open the door for European car manufacturers to invest in our market and
export the manufactured cars to Europe? Wouldn’t this generously offset the
consequence of eliminating customs on imported cars? Unfortunately, the
Egyptian automotive industry focuses only on producing cars for the local
market and does not aim at export,” he says.
“We call upon the government to reconsider the customs reduction and
instead support local industries and promote competitive performance.
Each locally assembled car provides on average six job opportunities; this
is an advantage we cannot afford to overlook in a country that suffers from
unemployment,” Mr Tawfik says. “We at EAFU have submitted a proposal to
the Industrial Development Authority to bring into Egypt some international
automotive manufacturer to set up a plant that would produce one million
cars a year; half of them for export. The government should provide facilities
for such investment in the form of allocating the required land at low prices
or on extended instalment plans. The current system of local car production,
which has been effective for the past 30 years, must be revised. Today, Egypt
produces only 100,000 cars a year in 17 different car models.”
Egyptian capacity
Mr Tawfik urges the Egyptian government to aim at the wide global automotive
market. “Morocco is now a huge car producer that targets the European market.
In the process, it is expected to recruit the best of our experts and workers in car
production. How can we allow ourselves to be robbed of our best and brightest
when they could serve us so much better at home? We should never let this happen,
nor should we relinquish the opportunity of targeting new markets. It is of the
utmost importance for us to promote car manufacture and export; this would also
give a huge edge to automotive feeding industries.” As the Head of the EAFU, Mr
Tawfik confirms that Egypt is capable of manufacturing the auto spare parts and
all other car feeder accessories and appliances needed for the industry to take off.
Mr Tawfik furnished Watani with a copy of the EAFU’s proposal to set
up a plant that would produce one million passenger cars annually, around
half of which would be for export. The proposal begins with explaining
that the minimum feasible car production stands at an annual 100,000 cars
of any specific model. Egypt’s current production compares very poorly
to this figure. It stands at some 30,000 cars a year per model out of a
total 39 total models of passenger and commercial vehicles produced by
17 producers. The entire local car production does not exceed 140,000
vehicles. This at a time when other Arab countries have spearheaded
lucrative automotive industries; Morocco alone is home to two Renault
plants which produce 400,000 cars a year each, and Saudi Arabia is
following close behind.
A million cars a year
The EAFU suggests that the Egyptian government should make an offer to
international car manufacturing giants to build a plant in Egypt. The annual
capacity should start at 100,000 cars in the first year, rise to 500,000 in five
years, then on to an annual one million cars. The cars would be produced
in two models of different engine capacity. Over the span of five years, the
locally produced parts should reach 80 per cent of the final product. At least
50 per cent of the cars produced would be for export, meeting international
standards in car production. The contract with the international manufacturer,
the mother company, should stipulate that a team of Egyptian engineers would
be part of the design and development crew of the model produced in Egypt,
and that they should form the nucleus of a design and development centre to
be established in Egypt.
The Egyptian government should actively support the project by offering
the mother company 500,000 square metres of land provided with all
basic infrastructure, to be leased for 50 years on favourable terms. Local
manufacturers of cars and car components should be invited to participate in
the project, each according to the required capacity.
The Egyptian government, police, and armed forces should exclusively
purchase the locally produced car for all their needs, and should promote its
sale among the Egyptian public and Diaspora by offering favourable terms of
payment or endorsing sale through instalments. Incentives should be granted
for the export of the cars or car components.
The proposal wraps up by citing the benefits to be reaped from such a
project, not least among which would be investments of up to EGP3 billion in
car manufacture and EGP5 billion in components, as well as the creation of
some six million jobs.
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Watani International
2
10 May 2015
The spring that turns red
This was not the first time I visit Wadi al-Natrun, the Western Desert
spot that lies off the Cairo Alexandria Desert Road midway between the
two cities. The area is especially famous for the desert monasteries that
have lain there since as far back as the 4th century, inhabited by men who
gave up worldly possessions for the solitude and spirituality fostered by the
remote desert sands. In the first centuries some 50 monasteries dotted the
area; today only four remain: Anba Macarius’s, Anba Bishoi’s, the Holy
Virgin’s (al-Suryan), and al-Baramous’s.
I had visited the monasteries countless times before, drawing on the
strength of the mysticism of the forefathers. My recent visit, however, was
quite different. I was invited with my family for the day by a friend who
owned a holiday home there.
We left the Cairo Alexandria highway and took the road to the monasteries.
Some three kilometres off the road we turned left. What a surprise awaited us!
Amid the arid desert, a splendid expanse of tranquil water surrounded by
rich vegetation spread as far as the eye could see. We learned that this was
Lake al-Hamra (in Arabic: the Red Spring), a little known natural gem that
only the locals are familiar with.
St Mary’s spring
Wadi al-Natrun is a place which derives its name from the word 'natrun',
Arabic for sodium carbonate salt. The name refers to eight lakes in the region
that have a substantial concentration of natrun salt. The ancient Egyptians
used it to mummify the dead, and the Romans extracted the silica they used to
making glass from there. In the years the British occupied Egypt—from 1882
to 1954—a railroad system was built to transport the salt to factories in Cairo.
Al-Hamra is unique among the Wadi al-Natrun lakes because, according
to historian Ayman Abul-Maati who specialises in the local history of the
area: “It has unique features. Its salinity is eight times the normal salinity
of the sea. In this it is second only to the Dead Sea in Jordan.
“There is also a spring of fresh, sweet water that flows amid the saline
waters of the lake. Tradition has it that the Holy Family—St Mary, St Joseph
and Baby Jesus—passed through this spot during their flight to Egypt from
Mervat Ayoub
the face of Herod the King who wished to kill the little boy. They were
thirsty but could not drink of the water because it was salty. It is said that
the sweet water spring, named Mariam’s Spring after the Holy Virgin,
welled then for them to drink. The story is circulated by the locals and the
desert fathers in an attempt to explain the mystery of the spring, which they
see as a miracle.”
The red waters
“The lake is called Hamra because its water turns red in summer,” Mr
Maati explains.
“The deep red colour is the result of the distinctive pink coloured natural
mineral, the natrun. During summer, and owing to the high temperature,
the water of the spring starts to evaporate, unveiling piles and piles of the
precious mineral.”
But the ancient Egyptians offered a different explanation, Mr Maati says.
There lived on the eastern and western sides of the lake a species of brine
shrimp called Artemia which was thought to be the reason behind the red
colour during the summer time.
The waters of al-Hamra are famous among the locals for their curative
power. Mr Maati says the sulphurous waters can help cure skin and bone
diseases and, in this capacity, can be an excellent destination for curative
or therapeutic tourism.
Tourist expert Hamdy Ezz totally agrees with Mr Maati. He told Watanithat
the government and tourism investors should realise the importance of Lake
al-Hamra. “The lake and its vicinity afford a superb experience in curative
and eco tourism, endowing the soul with serenity, wellness, and physical
and mental balance.”
Mr Ezz insists that Wadi al-Natrun may be exploited as a multi-purpose
world-class tourist destination if a visit there is made to include the
monasteries and other old churches in the vicinity that go back to the 7th
century, as well as Lake al-Hamra.
No easy task
Al-Hamra ecolodge is the only resort on the banks of the lake. Its owner Hany
al-Kamouni still talks of his first sight of the spot in the 1990s with absolute
wonder. “I was driving nearby when my car suddenly stopped. I disembarked
and walked around to ask for help. I came across the lake and froze to the
ground at the wonderful scene that spread before me. I directly fell in love with
the place and decided I would make it known to the whole world.”
“Building my dream project was far from easy,” Mr Kamouni says. “The
problem of land ownership was an especially thorny one. Even though
the land is State-owned and I paid the State for it, the local Bedouin
insisted it belonged to them. I knew I could never build the resort and
run it peacefully without the Bedouin’s approval, so I ‘purchased’ the
land again from them; that is I paid them to let me work and live here
in peace.
“I started building in 2000,” Kamouni notes, “I tried to go along the same
line as international ecolodges; visitors can fully savour the exceptional
environment and wildlife while enjoying the comfort of unobtrusive modern
amenities.
Widlife
Mr Kamouni says the shallow waters of the lake are beautiful to swim
in and the salt makes them very buoyant for bathers. A recent study by
Berlin's Humboldt University has revealed that the high concentrations
of specific elements, combined with the effects of sun radiation, are
extremely beneficial for people with a wide variety of skin complaints:
psoriasis, eczema, acne and others. The waters additionally stimulate
the metabolism, improve blood circulation and activate the body’s
immunity system.
The wildlife, he says, is diverse and abundant. There are lizards and
foxes, and a wealth of bird life. The area is a natural habitat for spurwinged plovers, yellow wagtails, swallows, crested larks, warblers, blackshouldered kites, lanner falcons, hoopoes, larks, buzzards and kites, as well
as the beautiful Kittlitz’s sand plover.
To save the lives of Andrew and Botros
When I first learned about the case of the twins Andrew Victor Salama
I admit I was personally shaken when I learned of
and Botros who suffer from the Laron Syndrome I was
the disease and the sum of money needed to save the
reminded of the disciples asking Christ when a blind man since boys’ lives. But the parents’ suffering and heartbreak, and their
birth came his way, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, unshakeable faith that God would do something compelled me to
that he would be born blind?” (John 9:2). Jesus answered them: “It stand by them. I have repeatedly written in Watani’s al-Mahatta on
was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that Page 3 since 1 March 2015 about the case of Andrew and Botros
the works of God might be displayed in him,” (John 9:3). Would it and sent out a call for help to our good benevolent readers. Only a
be that the works of God should be displayed with these two young few hours after Watani was out I received a phone call from one of
boys in our present time, just as with the man born blind in the days our readers who said she was pledging EGP5,000 for the treatment
of Jesus?
of Andrew and Botros. She did not wish to give her name but asked
Laron Syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder characterised me to note the donation under the name of ‘Good as His word’. I
by insensitivity to growth hormone. It is not a common disease, was very moved and felt that this was a message from God that He
only a few hundreds around the world have contracted it. Beside the will stand by the twins. Andrew and Botros received many other
obvious dwarfism that the Laron Syndrome causes, it attacks the donations from Watani readers. I was especially touched by a phone
growth of those who suffer from it, attacking the body functions call that I received from a reader from Alexandria who called to
successively until it leads to death. It was the researcher Zvi Laron inform me that she was sending out EGP40,000 to al-Mahatta’s
who in 1966 discovered that a treatment of biosynthetic IGF-1 has Goodwill Fund. After our talk turned to the case of Andrew and
a positive effect on motivating the growth hormones. However the Botros she decided to make them EGP50,000. The following day
cost of the treatment is hefty.
she called again and said she would donate another EGP50,000. I
The parents of Andrew and Botros, poor Egyptians with very was spellbound; God’s voice was loud and clear; never had such a
limited means, broke down when they learned that the cost of saving huge sum been gathered by al-Mahatta in such a short time.
the lives of their two precious 12-year-olds exceeds EGP800,000
So now we have EGP210,000 for the treatment of Andrew and
during the first year of treatment. But their firm faith that God Botros, and still counting. We ask our readers to generously
can provide a way drove them to seek help. A friend’s advice that contribute towards the treatment of the 12-year-old twins, and trust
Watani readers might be able to do something brought the young in God that the required EGP800,000 will soon be made available
family to my door.
by our readers. Our faith says that the boys will be saved.
Watani International editorial team: Christine Alphonse ,Dalia Victor, Donia Wagdy, Lydia Farid, Nivert Rizkallah, Sherine Nader
Copy editor: Jenny Jobbins
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Layout editor: Heba Adel
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