Former referee Howard Webb is pictured in the stands Action Images via Reuters/Matthew Childs(Reuters) - Howard Webb, the new Chief Refereeing Officer of match officials body PGMOL, says former professional players should consider moving into refereeing. The 51-year-old did not expect top footballers to become referees but he said it could prove to be a viable career option for ex-players. "We need to look at how we can entice people in. We've always struggled to get ex-players involved," Webb told reporters on Thursday. The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), the Football Association and PGMOL are running a joint initiative named 'Player To Referee Pathway'.

CAIRO – 23 December 2022: Egypt will start the operation of the first luxurious train (Talgo train) round trips on Saturday. The train will take off at 2:00 PM from Ramses Railway station in downtown Cairo for Alexandria’s Sidi Gaber station. On August 9, 2022, Egypt and Spain's Talgo signed a contract for the latter to supply seven luxurious sleeper trains, which will be a total of 126 railcars, and provide maintenance and spare parts for 15 years. Every train will consist of 10 second-class passenger railcars, five first-class passenger railcars, two dining cars, and a power car. The contract also provides that Talgo and Egypt's Semaf Locomotives join forces on localizing sleeper train production.

Ramadan told Daily News Egypt that the mobile market is suffering from a complete stagnation due to the doubling of the price of mobile phones, in addition to the lack of supply of mobile devices. Mobile phone sales in Egypt recorded more than 15 million phones in 2021, according to the research institution GFK, compared to 13.3 million phones in 2020. In September, the Chinese company, OPPO, announced its intention to establish a mobile factory in Egypt, with investments of $30m and a production capacity of 4.5 million phones annually. Samsung manufactures some of its mobile devices in its factory in Beni Suef for a trial period. For his part, a source in the mobile market said that the market is suffering because of the inability to provide mobile devices due to the suspension of imports.

Courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of HealthCAIRO – 23 December 2022: Egypt’s Ministry of Health announced on Friday that more than 3.9 million babies have been examined under the presidential initiative to examine and treat hearing impairment in newborns. Of the babies examined, 466,234 have been redirected to conduct another test a week apart from the first test, the ministry said in a statement. Early detection of hearing impairment facilitates treatment opportunities and spares children communication problems that could cause psychological issues for them. The ministry receives citizens’ inquiries regarding the presidential initiative on the hotline 15335 for the “100 Million Healthy Lives” initiatives. The hearing impairment initiative was launched in September 2019 to detect hearing problems in newborns from day one to day 28.

The UN General Assembly approved on Wednesday Egypt’s re-election to the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) for two years from 2023 to 2024, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the same day. Osama Abdel Khaliq — Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York — said that Egypt’s re-election comes after it received support from the African bloc in New York. He said that this election reflects Egypt’s long-standing contributions to peace-building efforts in Africa, including during Egypt’s chairing of the Peacebuilding Commission in 2021, when it represented the continent. He also noted President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s leadership on the issue of reconstruction and development in the aftermath of conflicts in the African Union (AU). Furthermore, Al-Khaleq pointed out Egypt’s commitment to continue working with all parties concerned to support efforts to enhance the effectiveness of the UN peacebuilding architecture, in particular through the provision of adequate, sustainable, and predictable funding for peacebuilding activities.

In recent decades, food systems have delivered major human development benefits through massive increases in productivity. At this year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, we saw the first ever Food Systems Pavilion. It is a positive recognition of the need to relook at how our current global food systems operate, and an opportunity to develop actions and solutions to create more sustainable and resilient food value chains. Biodiversity in our soil, crops and animals must increase to improve the food system’s resilience to external shocks and enhance long- term food security. We need to take a holistic environmental approach, one encompassing all steps between food sourcing and end of life.

CAIRO – 22 December 2022: Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry affirmed that Egypt will continue to support development efforts in Tanzania as he participated in a celebration to mark the start of the first filling of Julius Nyerere Hydropower Dam on Thursday. The dam project implemented by an Egyptian consortium affirms Egypt’s commitment toward its brothers in Africa, Shoukry said during the celebration. The project aims at providing Tanzania with required power and controlling the Rufiji River flood. This month, Tanzania will start filling the dam’s reservoir, the ministry said. The project also includes a hydropower station with a capacity of 2,115 MW beside the Rufiji River in the Selous Game Reserve west of Dar Es-Salam City.

In the draft general budget for FY2022/23, Egypt allocated support amounting to EGP 302.2bn for social protection, compared to actual allocations of EGP 251bn in FY2020/21 — an increase of 17.6%. This came in the report of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development on social protection spending for FY-2022/23. Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said also said that support for social security and the Takaful and Karama programmes amounted to EGP 22bn, while support for public housing recorded EGP 266m. Moreover, aid worth EGP 23.5m was provided through institutions serving disabled people, with the number of beneficiaries reaching 122,700. Finally, the cost of tools and equipment to serve disabled people amounted to EGP 74.4m, with a total of 19,400 beneficiaries.

Planning and Economic Development Minister Hala el Saeed said that the state had allocated EGP 302.2 billion in the 2022-23 public budget to social protection comparing to EGP 251 billion in the 2020-21 public budget with an increase of 17.6 percent. This comes within the state’s keenness on activating the mechanisms of the social protection and care program, the minister said. She announced this statistics on the occasion of issuing the ministry’s report concerning the goals of the 2022-23 fiscal year plan in the social protection sector. She noted that this increase had contributed to cutting the rates of poverty for the first time in 2019-2020 to 29.7 percent and that the state aims at cutting the poverty rates to reach 25 percent in 2022-23.

Several prominent figures had visited the exhibition, including Queen Sofia of Spain, US billionaire Michael Bloomberg and the UAE’s Minister of Culture Noura al-Kaabi. Founder of Art D’Égypte Nadine Abdel Ghaffar said that over 800 global media outlets covered the event, bringing a international awareness to it like never before. “Nearly 200 volunteers participated and received training before the exhibition, allowing them to act as tour guides for visitors during the exhibition period. As a result of our work, the site of the pyramids was chosen for the exhibition to merge between contemporary art and ancient heritage and to bring the past to the present. We have worked hard over the past years, and we are proud to present this huge exhibition for the second time at the Giza Pyramids, an unmatched UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Exits MENA locks down the year with a new acquisition deal in the Egyptian healthtech industry, with CheckMe acquiring a majority stake in Doctor Online. Health-tech companies in the MENA region have reached a combined value of $1.5bn, a 22X increase since 2016. CheckMe aims to work on becoming Egypt and the region’s leading go-to healthtech Super App, helping patients find more convenient, efficient and cheaper channels for medical needs. This acquisition marks a significant restructuring to enhance the patient journey and provide patients with the necessary medical cycle. Exits MENA is already heavily planning key milestones to grow its existing pipeline further and develop the offering on its current beta platform Exits.me.

Egypt Tourism Ministry to launch “Experience Egypt” website in 2023FavoriteIn a bid to boost tourism in the country, a new website called “Experience Egypt” will be launched in January 2023, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa said. The ministry is working on developing its technological services for tourism promotion. The press conference was attended by Youmna Al-Bahar, Assistant Minister of Tourism; Ahmed Abied, Assistant Minister of Tourism; Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, Head of the Recovered Antiquities Department; Ayman Ashmawy, Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Department; Moamen Othman, Head of the Museums Sector at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities; and Ahmed Rahima, Assistant Minister of Tourism for Human Resources. The minister explained that a marketing study was conducted in many countries of the world, which showed that about 272 million tourists in 12 countries wanted to visit Egypt. These three axes are increasing the number of airline seats to Egypt by three times, improving the tourism experience, and enhancing the tourism investment climate.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi returned home after attending the second edition of the Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership, which was hosted by Jordan, according to presidential spokesman Bassam Rady on Tuesday20/12/2022. The French-sponsored event brought together a multitude of regional leaders as well as French President Emmanuel Macron and representatives from the European Union, United Nations, Arab League, Gulf Cooperation Council, and Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The conference aimed at fostering Iraq’s relations with its neighbors and tackling global challenges regionally not only climate change, but also food security, desertification, energy security, public health emergencies, natural and industrial disasters, and more.

Banque Misr — in cooperation with Banque du Caire, Misr Insurance Holding Group, and Allianz Egypt, launched the Misr Real Estate Investment Fund 1, which will invest in commercial real estate assets with a periodic return, allowing a new investment mechanism in the real estate market. This mechanism will enable investors to invest in direct real estate as well as distribute risks on several properties owned by the fund. Mohamed El-Etreby — Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Banque Misr — said that the launch of this fund comes at the forefront of a series of real estate funds that Misr Investment Funds Management intends to issue. He also pointed out that Banque du Caire owns about 20% of the shares of Misr Company for Managing Investment Funds, while the bank’s share in the Egypt Real Estate Investment Fund is about EGP 100m. Furthermore, Basil Al-Heny — Chairperson of Misr Insurance Holding — explained that the group’s participation with an amount of EGP 100m in the establishment of Misr Real Estate Investment Fund 1 comes within the framework of the group’s strategy to focus on real estate investment, as the group owns the largest institutional real estate portfolio in Egypt.

Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa said that a new website, called “Experience Egypt”, will be launched in January 2023 for tourism promotion, as the ministry is working on developing its technological services. These three axes are increasing the number of airline seats to Egypt by 3 times, improving the tourism experience, and enhancing the tourism investment climate. Issa praised the infrastructure that the Egyptian state had built during the last period, stressing that the development that Egypt witnessed in the infrastructure will contribute greatly to the development of the tourism sector and increase investment in the Egyptian tourism sector. The minister stressed that there is great cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Ministry of Civil Aviation to promote the tourism sector, explaining that Egypt has 5 very important airports, stressing that these airports play a major role in the influx of tourists to visit Egypt. The press conference was attended by Youmna Al-Bahar, Assistant Minister of Tourism; Ahmed Abied, Assistant Minister of Tourism; Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, Head of the Recovered Antiquities Department; Ayman Ashmawy, Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Department; Moamen Othman, Head of the Museums Sector at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities; and Ahmed Rahima, Assistant Minister of Tourism for Human Resources.