00:00 The decision to stop the initiative to finance tourism with low interest rates was the decision of the Central Bank of Egypt
00:07 related to the tourism sector.
00:09 A decision that carries in its belt a new burden for one of the most important economic sectors in Egypt.
00:14 Despite the growth of tourism revenues of 25.7% over nine months,
00:19 recorded more than 10 billion dollars,
00:22 these interest rates, according to experts, do not match the tourism opportunities that Egypt has.
00:28 This is due to several factors,
00:31 including the increase in financial costs,
00:33 especially in relation to the cost of construction and the development of infrastructure for football and tourist cities,
00:39 as well as the various tax burdens.
00:41 This initiative is for the entire tourism sector, not just the transportation sector,
00:45 meaning transportation, hotels, everything.
00:47 This will lead to high costs.
00:51 The high cost is due to the fact that the law has changed.
00:58 There are no more incentives to encourage investors to buy.
01:01 The maximum incentive for cars is 400,000.
01:07 400,000 cars are not even enough to buy a car.
01:11 Egypt has put forward a ambitious plan to increase tourism revenues by 20% over three years
01:17 to reach about 20 billion dollars.
01:20 For this purpose, experts are calling for the launch of alternative financial initiatives with low interest rates,
01:26 as well as the approval of incentives and tax incentives for the tourism sector.
01:31 They are adding things that are surprising to have a tax on them.
01:36 First, they added 20% to 22.5%.
01:40 Okay, then we did 25% or 27.5%.
01:44 There must be stability in the tax rate.
01:46 Because stability brings investors.
01:48 I changed the tax rate.
01:50 Why? I'm doing something called a "tablet study."
01:53 I do this "tablet study" on a certain basis.
01:55 If you tell me that I'm doing a "tablet study" and that I'm going to pay a 50% tax,
01:59 and I see it's a success, I'll do it.
02:02 But when it comes to half, you tell me I raised it by 2.5%.
02:06 No, it doesn't work.
02:07 In May, the Egyptian government decided to include the tourism sector
02:11 in the initiative to support production sectors with estimated funds of 10 billion pounds
02:16 and a 10% interest rate to raise the total amount of funds for tourism, industry and agriculture
02:22 to 160 billion pounds.
02:25 Alaa Sanad, CNBC Arabia, Cairo.
02:28 Kahira.
