In the wake of the ongoing economic reforms in Egypt, Daily News Egypt sat down with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on the sidelines of the IMF s Opportunity for All conference in Marrakesh. She discussed her insights and laid out what she views as the progress that has taken place and how these reforms can achieve the aspirations of the Egyptian people. The first of two essential ways the Egyptian government can maximise the benefits of its economic reform programme, she said, is through job creation. The public sector is no lon- ger able to achieve this; only the private sector can create the needed jobs, she said.

Presidential candidate Moussa Mostafa Moussa said, at a press conference on Monday, that economic growth will be at the forefront of his priorities. The press conference came a few hours after he submitted his nomination papers to run for the presidency 15 mintues before the scheduled deadline on Monday.

The Egyptian parliament s 25-30 bloc said in a statement on Tuesday that they did not give endorsements to any candidate in the country s upcoming presidential elections, which are scheduled for March. The 14-member opposition bloc said in a press conference in parliament s Pharaonic hall that "we refused to give endorsements to any of the candidates in an election process that was manipulated in a way that forced the country s sons, who can bear its gross responsibilities, to refrain from exercising nomination rights."

The beginning of the 2018 presidential elections witnessed various prominent figures demonstrate interest in competing against current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for the presidency. Strong figures such as former army chief of staff Sami Anan, rights lawyer Khaled Ali, and former-Prime Minister and 2012 presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafik, among others, appeared as potential contenders to Egypt’s current leader.

Egypt s National Elections Authority announced shortly after 2pm on Monday that the deadline to receive requests to run in Egypt s 2018 presidential elections had passed. The spokesperson for the NEA, Mahmoud El-Sharif, said that the authority had received two requests for candidacy; from President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who will run for a second term in the March election, and from the head of the Ghad party, Moussa Mostafa Moussa.

Following a tripartite summit between the leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in the Ethiopian capital on Monday to discuss differences over the Grand Ethiopian Renainssance Dam, Egypt s president told reporters, "People should be assured. None of [us three] countries – Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia – will be harmed." President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi added, "Egypt s interests are one with Ethiopia s and also one with Sudan s. We are speaking as one voice."

The leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan will meet on Monday on the sidelines of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Al-Ahram s Arabic website reported. The meeting is aimed at breaking the deadlock in negotiations over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Reuters quoted official sources as saying on Sunday. The dam is under construction on the Blue Nile in the Ethiopian highlands.

Egypt was elected by African leaders in Addis Ababa to head the African Union s upcoming 31st session in 2019, the Egyptian presidency announced. In a statement issued Sunday, Egyptian presidency spokesman Bassam Radi stated that Egypt would be a member in the troika of the African Commission in the African Union, which includes the current, previous and upcoming presidents of the African Union.

The Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) will issue its ruling in the conflict of jurisdiction between the State Council courts and Summary Proceedings courts over the Red Sea islands agreement on March 3, judicial sources said on Sunday. The date for the ruling was set during a special session for the SCC over the Egyptian-Saudi Tiran and Sanafir maritime border agreement on January 21.

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has so far licensed four NGOs — the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR); MAAT Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights; Partners for Transparency (PFT); and the Egypt Peace Foundation for Development and Human Rights — to monitor the presidential election scheduled between 26 and 28 March. Thirty NGOs had licences refused, and no foreign organisations were approved. NEC has to review the papers of the remaining applicants. NEC spokesperson Mahmoud Al-Sherif had said in a press conference that a total of 67 NGOs had applied.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week released its staff report on the second review of Egypt s economic reform programme. Egypt is receiving three-year funding of $12 billion from the IMF s Extended Fund Facility (EFF). Half that sum has already been disbursed, and the EFF ends in fiscal year 2018-19. The outlook for the Egyptian economy according to the report is largely positive, and it commended the government for its taking ownership of the reform programme and for “their strong track record in policy implementation since the start of the programme and political support at the highest level”.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi honoured the families of Egypt s martyrs, including some officers, in a ceremony held at the Police Academy on Wednesday on the occasion of the 66th National Police Day, which also coincides the 7th anniversary of 25 January revolution. Alongside Interior Ministery Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar and senior state officials, the Egyptian president saluted the sacrifices of policemen who lost their lives to terrorism, laying a wreath of flowers at the police martyrs memorial.

Egypt s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will head to Addis Ababa on Wednesday evening to participate in a number of meetings preceding the 30th summit of the Africa Union, the Egyptian foreign ministry announced. According to the statement, Minister Shoukry will participate in a number of sideline events, including the African Committee for Commerce meeting and the African Committee for Libya meeting.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi took on Tuesday the medical examination that is required for candidates in the nation s presidential elections scheduled for March, state-owned agency MENA reported.

Presidential hopeful Sami Anan s official campaign coordinator, Mahmoud Refaat, wrote on his Twitter on Tuesday that Anan has been arrested after a statement was released by Armed Forces, in which it said that Anan will be investigated over “forgery” charges.

Reports have claimed potential presidential candidate Kahled Ali will not run for the 2018 Presidential election due in March.

The presidential election is set to begin in 120 days before the end of the current presidential term in March, according to the constitution, raising many questions among Egyptians on candidates that might run for the next presidential election.

Egypt s Minister of Immigration and Expatriate Affairs Nabila Makram Ebeid said on Monday that Egyptians living abroad will be able to cast their votes in the presidential elections on 16, 17 and 18 March, announcing that all Egyptian expats, including violators of legal status in host countries, will be allowed to vote.

The Cairo Appeal Court set February 15 to start the trial of two policemen over charges of beating to death Mohamed Abdel Hakim Mahmoud, aka Afroto, while being held at Cairo s Mokattam Police Station on suspicion in a drug-related case.

The Egyptian House of Representatives has intensified its activities lately, following a negative opinion poll conducted by the Baseera Center which showed dissatisfaction of roughly 37 percent of Egyptians with the performance of Egypt s Parliament in the period from March 2016 to April 2017.

Former presidential candidate and leftist figure Hamdeen Sabahi has signed an election endorsement in favour of lawyer and labour activist Khaled Ali, supporting his bid to run in Egypt s upcoming presidential elections, Ali s campaign said in a brief statement on Sunday.