The General Transportation Authority announced on Tuesday that Egypt’s first batch of electric buses from BYD Chinese company will arrive on June and will operate on the Corniche route in Alexandria. Contracts for the 15 buses were signed last January, making Alexandria the first Egyptian and Middle Eastern city to have electric buses.

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi received a phone call from his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Sunday to discuss several regional issues, including developments in Libya. The two leaders also discussed ways of enhancing bilateral cooperation and other regional issues, El-Sisiss spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement, with Macron praising Egypts efforts to restore stability and to unify Libyas military.

Egypt s unemployment rate fell to 10.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2018 from 11.3 per cent in the same period in 2017, according to statistics from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). This figure is also an improvement over 2016 when unemployment reached 12.5 per cent. The number of people in employment rose to around 26 million, while the number of those looking for jobs stood at around three million, representing 10.6 per cent of the total workforce. The latter is estimated at about 29 million, according to CAPMAS.

Egypt s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry discussed on Thursday Egyptian-German bilateral relations with Volker Kauder, the majority leader in Germany s Bundestag, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement. Kauder is in Egypt to meet with Egyptian officials to discuss bilateral cooperation, especially military cooperation, as well as the war on terrorism and countering irregular migration.

After two years of negotiations Egypt and Russia signed an agreement on Wednesday to establish the Russian industrial zone in the Suez Canal area, under the 11th session of the Egyptian-Russian Joint Committee meetings held in Moscow. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry previously announced that Egypt and Russia were on the verge of signing contracts for the Russian Industrial Zone, according to a press release on the Foreign Ministry’s Facebook page earlier in May.

After winning a second term with 97 per cent of the vote in Egypt s 2018 presidential elections, incumbent President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is expected to take his new oath of office in parliament. Parliamentary spokesman Salah Hassaballah told reporters this week that El-Sisi will be sworn in for his second term on 2 June. "Intensive contacts between the president s office and parliament s secretariat-general are underway to conclude preparations for the swearing-in ceremony scheduled for the first week of June," Hassaballah said.

Immigration and Egyptian Expatriate Affairs Minister Nabila Makram has said that her ministry, in cooperation with the Ministry of Manpower, is currently working to renew work permits for Egyptian workers abroad. In statements to Al-Masry Al-Youm, the minister said that some governors issued decisions not to renew their permits.

Egypt s Minister of Military production Mohamed El-Assar said on Tuesday that the ministry s factories and companies do not aim to compete with private sector companies, highlighting that 70 percent of the ministry s projects are undertaken in partnership with the private sector, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported. The minister s comments came during his meeting with a number of reporters from online national outlets and newspapers at the ministry s headquarters.

HSBC is “fundamentally” optimistic on Egypt s near-term outlook, the bank s Chief Economist for Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Simon Williams said at an HSBC Economist Roadshow event in Cairo, according to a recent press release. Williams called the gains from Egypt s economic reform programme “impressive,” adding that his bank believes they have momentum.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed on Monday in a meeting with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla two new development projects in the oil and gas sector, the spokesperson of the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. The meeting saw a discussion of the establishment of an integrated complex for refinement and petrochemicals in Suez Governorate as well as a hydrocracking complex in Assiut.

Beltone Financial, one of Egypt’s largest investment banks affiliated with business tycoon Naguib Sawiris, said on Sunday that the board of directors had agreed to acquire a controlling stake in the URA Group, which owns banks in 12 African countries, Reuters reported.

Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Aal headed the 27th Conference of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union, which is being held in Cairo at the headquarters of the Egyptian Parliament. Its first session was Wednesday.

Egypt s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will head on Monday to the Algerian capital of Algiers to participate in a meeting of the tripartite initiative of Arab states neighboring Libya, which includes Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said in statement "The meeting comes in the framework of regular meetings of the tripartite initiative held continuously between the three states to discuss the latest developments in Libya and how to support the Libyan brothers on the political and security levels to achieve a national consensus and political solution to the crisis in the country," the statement said.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said during the fifth edition of the National Youth Conference that anyone who wishes to participate in the country s political life must have a comprehensive understanding of Egypt s political and economic landscape. The first session of this edition of the youth conference, which kicked off in Cairo on Thursday, is titled The Youth s Vision for the Egyptian Political Scene. The session included a discussion among youth representatives on the prospects of the youth becoming more active in political life as well as the future of political parties in the country.

The Central Bank of Egypt will most likely keep interest rates unchanged during its upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Thursday, a number of economists have said. Deposit and lending rates are currently at 16.75 and 17.75 percent respectively. Managing Director of Multiples Group Omar El-Shenety says that despite the easing of inflation, a wave of price increases is expected in fuel and electricity, in addition to the latest public transportation price increases.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi opened on Wednesday the fifth youth forum in Cairo with wide participation from political figures and parties, civil society groups and youth representatives. The president said in his opening speech that the conference presents an opportunity for dialogue for the sake of Egypt.

After more than 12 hours of non-stop talks in Addis Ababa, Egypt s ministers of foreign affairs and irrigation, along with the country s intelligence chief, reached on Wednesday morning an agreement with their Ethiopian and Sudanese counterparts on the next steps to reconcile their views on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced. The meeting between the nine officials was an attempt to break the deadlock in recent talks over the technical study conducted by a French firm on the potential effect of the Ethiopian dam on Nile downstream countries.

Egypt s Minister of Interior Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar opened a new special forces training institute in the Cairo suburbs on Monday, which aims at improving the tactical and combat capabilities of units. Located on the Cairo-Alexandria desert highway, the institute was built over 72 feddans and can fit up to 1,450 personnel for training courses. The faciltiy also includes residential units.

Egypt’s state security prosecutor ordered on Monday the detention of 20 people for 15 days pending an investigation into their roles in protests at Cairo metro stations last week after the government raised fares, state news MENA reported. There were small but rare protests at metro stations across Cairo on Saturday after fares more than tripled for some commuters as the government tightens spending and implements measures to achieve IMF-backed economic reforms.

Egypt s parliament provisionally approved on Sunday a 35-article law aimed at regulating the business of medical and clinical research. Parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal said the final vote on the law will be postponed to a later date. "We do not have a two-thirds majority of MPs right now in order to be able to take a final vote on it," Abdel-Aal said.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called on Sunday for African youths "to change reality,” during a speech at the Model African Union in Cairo. The president said that African countries face the same challenges, which include “unemployment, poor education, child marriage, terrorism, extremism, and illegal migration.”