April 2014
Dear members of the Egyptian community in the United States,
Egypt’s Historical and Cultural Preservation
Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities, concluded a visit to Washington DC in March, during which he met with US Government officials to discuss areas of cooperation between the United States and Egypt in a variety of areas, including cultural preservation and conservation of antiquities. They discussed the cooperation in combatting the looting and illegal trafficking of Egyptian artifacts in light of the rash of looting in recent years of archaeological sites.
Minister Ibrahim also signed a public-private partnership with the International Coalition to Protect Egyptian Antiquities (ICPEA) designed to protect Egyptian antiquities from cultural racketeering, a centuries old business and a crime that Egypt – and other countries – faces, especially during difficult economic times.
Boosting the Egyptian Economy
In February, Egypt’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, visited the United States and met with the members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well as US Government officials. The Minister’s discussions included efforts taken by the Egyptian Government to stimulate its economy. With two stimulus packages released, 29.7 billion and 20 billion Egyptian pounds respectively, Egypt is focused on enhancing short and medium-term growth through increased spending on public and private investments in order to create job opportunities and increase demand to stimulate the economy.
To ensure a more competitive economic environment, amendments to the “competition and anti-monopoly code” have been introduced, coupled with new legislation to enhance the real-estate market and encourage mortgage finance. More business legislative reforms are expected in the near future.
The Egyptian Government is working on the Suez Canal Development Project; establishing an industrial, mining, commercial and tourism center between Qena and the Red Sea; and building a nuclear power plant in the El Dabaa region for electricity generation.
Egyptians supporting each other
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Egyptian community for the support of the activities and functions that have positively impacted the lives of Egyptians both in Egypt and abroad. The Embassy will continue to inform the community such efforts exerted by Egyptian Organizations in the United States to support Egypt, and in this regard I encourage the community to provide the embassy with any information on this regard to be shared regularly through the Embassy’s newsletter.
With this said, I would like to highlight the success story of the Egypt Cancer Network, a U.S. based 501c3 non-profit organization which provides charitable support to Egyptian hospitals and non-profit organizations focused on cancer in the areas of patient care, scientific advancement and education. For more information: https://egyptcancernetwork.org
National Identity Cards
In response to the overwhelming number of inquiries from the Egyptian community, I would like to announce that we are in anticipation of a visit by a delegation from the Egyptian Civil Affairs Authority to Washington DC to issue national ID cards. I therefore urge those who desire to issue the national ID cards to send their requests and contact information to:
IDrequest@egyptembassy.net
Egypt Support Fund
In response to the inquiries about depositing and transferring cash to “Egypt support fund” (306306), the Embassy has opened a deposit account in National Bank of Egypt in New York towards that purpose. The account number is 0001405504010.
Community-Embassy Engagement
I would like to renew my call to the community to increase the level of interaction and communication with the Embassy, both by updating contact information and sharing information on any new Egyptian organization and its activities supporting Egypt. This type of engagement is likely to have a positive impact on establishing a more unified Egyptian community in the United States that is able to mobilize and coordinate its efforts in order to support our beloved country.
I would also like to encourage the youth in the Egyptian community to intensify their networking among themselves as well as with the Embassy to share and project their creative and innovative ideas to support development in Egypt.
Mohamed Tawfik
Follow us on Twitter: @EgyptEmbassyUSA