Egypt to step up taxi scrappage plan: report Egypt will kick off on Thursday the second stage of a program to modernize the country's old taxis, state media said, potentially providing a boon to local auto firms. The second stage of the plan to replace cars older than 20 years would scrap 30,000 of the black and white, and often rickety, taxis that fill the capital's streets, the government-run daily Al-Ahram said on Tuesday. The program's first stage spurred sales at GB Auto, Egypt's biggest listed automobile assembler, a trend analysts believe would continue. "We expect GB Auto to continue capturing a share of 25-30 percent of taxi replacements, investment bank HC said in a research note. In the second stage, buyers can choose to pay the installments on their cars over seven years, two years longer than in the first stage. Taxi buyers under the program benefit from a range of perks, including the exemption of imported parts from customs and discounts from companies producing the cars, the Al-Ahram report said. -Reuters Egypt deficit seen at LE 106 bln in 2010/11 Egypt's budget deficit will reach LE 106 billion ($19.2 billion) in the fiscal year 2010/11, and will start falling the following year, state media reported on Wednesday, citing the finance minister. The deficit next year would be LE 8 billion more than in 2009/10, implying a deficit of LE 98 billion this fiscal year, the government-owned daily Al-Ahram quoted Youssef Boutros-Ghali as saying. The minister did not give a ratio but previously said the deficit would be 7.9 percent of gross domestic product in the year that ends June 30, 2011. The deficit would then start falling to 3.3 percent of gross domestic product, the report said. It was not immediately clear if that target of 3.3 percent would be hit in 2011/12. -Reuters Orascom Devt eyes Uganda for budget housing-report Swiss-based developer Orascom Development Holding is in talks to build a budget housing project in Uganda and is studying similar developments in Zambia and Ghana, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. Orascom is known mostly for building and running high-end resort towns, but is planning several low-income projects, including ones in Romania and Iraq. The developer is eyeing 4-5 million square meters of land near Uganda's capital Kampala for a project similar to Haram City, a budget housing development near Cairo, the daily Al-Mal quoted Chief Executive Samih Sawiris as saying. In a text message requesting confirmation of the news, Sawiris told Reuters: "Let's wait and see if they deliver before we say it's happening. "You know that anyone from any government side who sees Haram City usually calls up to say we want to have one. The question is who has the guts to allocate a huge piece of land very close to his capital at nominal cost to get it, he said in the message. Orascom's main presence is in Egypt, where it lists depositary receipts. It also owns land and runs projects across the Middle East and Europe. -Reuters Suez Canal to lower tolls for natural gas tankers Egypt will lower tolls for natural gas tankers crossing the Suez Canal by between 5 percent and 15 percent Al-Mal newspaper reported, citing the canal authority. The larger the tanker, the greater the reduction, the authority indicated. "We had previously indicated that the Canal Authority will use discounts and incentives to attract more traffic to the canal, instead of cutting its transit fees, Beltone Financial said in a comment. The authority held transit fees steady in 2010, in reaction to the global crisis. "We expect that as the traffic in the canal increases, as evident from data since quarter two of 2009, the canal could opt to raise transit fees by a small increment, leading to total revenues of $5 billion in fiscal year 2010/2010, compared to our expectation of $4.7 billion in fiscal year 2009/2010. Egypt's net users spend $2.1 bln on retail e-commerce Egypt's internet users spent an estimated $2.1 billion on retail e-commerce in 2009, according to an Arab Advisors' survey. The survey showed that 34.6 percent of adult internet users in Egypt use e-commerce (including bill payments). The Arab Advisors Group estimates the number of Egypt internet users who utilize e-commerce to be around 2.36 million which is around 3 percent of the total population in Egypt. These e-commerce users spent an estimated $2.1 billion in e-commerce transactions in 2009 which includes bill payments online. The survey was concluded by the Arab Advisors Group in April 2010, and provides the results of a major comprehensive online survey of internet users in Egypt. The survey covers the internet usage, IPTV, games, e-commerce, cellular and Pay TV usage and habits of the online community in Egypt. Respondents were randomly targeted by receiving an email shot in their inbox to ask them to fill in the survey in cooperation with Egypt's leading ISP, TE Data, or by an online banner advertised on TE Data's website. The survey results encompass answers from 1,321 respondents that passed rigorous quality control checks. "VoIP usage among internet users reached 46.3 percent. Of the total respondents, 41.6 percent use special software packages (such as Skype, GoogleTalk) to make calls through the internet. "A small majority of respondents (53.7 percent) do not make calls through the internet, said Hussam A. Barhoush, Arab Advisors senior research analyst.
