Files: International Financial Institutions
The debt crisis will not be solved by a new loan
External debt payments for a year exceed foreign currency reserves and current debt policy is not sustainable
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) issued a comment on the report released lately by the Investigation office of the World Bank Group (CAO) on the complaint against the Alexandria Portland Cement Company (Titan Cement Factory), and the International Finance Corporation ( IFC) , the private sector arm of the world bank Group, which funded the establishment of the company.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) issued a comment on the report released lately by the Investigatio
Egypt was hit with the biggest fine in its history when the ICSID ruled on September 3, 2018 that Egypt was liable for compensation of $2 billion to Union Fenosa, as damages for the 2014 government’s failure to provide gas to the company during the energy crisis in Egypt.
The report is of particular relevance to the meeting scheduled for April 20, 2 pm GMT, between World Bank officials and civil society organizations focused on tax justice and the disclosure policies of international finance institutions such as the World Bank and IMF.
The IFC has been operating in Egypt since 1995 and has worked with dozens of different companies across different sectors, mainly through lending or holding equity in the investee company, as well as by providing technical support. We have found through our research that the IFC invests in operations that are deeply involved with some of the most secretive offshore jurisdictions in the world, where information about the real owners of these companies is in many cases obscured.
Under the terms of the IMF program and the first review report issued by IMF experts in September 2017, the Egyptian government was obligated to carry out 17 measures to address economic problems in the period from April to December 2017.
The report, issued by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, aims to monitor the measures imposed by the loan program and their impact on the economy, both positive and negative. It also identifies the measures the government failed to carry out and attempts to offer alternatives that are less onerous for the public, especially low-income groups.