Egypt to enhance cooperation with UK and Canada in minting coins

[eurocoin]

Egypt to enhance cooperation with UK in minting coins

Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait announced Saturday that his country is looking forward to deepening joint cooperation with the UK in currency minting.

Egypt seeks to maximize the benefit from the capabilities of the Egyptian Mint, he explained, as it is one of only two institutions in the African continent and the Middle East specialized in minting, in order to cover the needs of local and regional markets at the best quality.

This came during a meeting Saturday with representatives of the British Royal Mint. The meeting discussed a project to produce coins with local components through a factory or production line in the Suez Canal axis, with the aim of pumping new investments and exporting to Africa and the Middle East.

Maait explained that Egypt seeks to localize global expertise in minting, circulating and commemorative coins, in order to deepen local production, along with developing human capabilities, and expanding the use of technical and technological solutions.

The government is pursuing a policy that supports the national industry and stimulates economic activity. Maait stressed that the Finance Ministry is striving hard towards achieving these goals by strengthening aspects of cooperation with international partners who have great experience.

The head of the Egyptian Mint, Hossam Khedr, said that there is a development plan to expand production, deepen the local component, and ensure the quality of work. And the Adviser to the Finance Minister for Engineering Affairs Sherif Hazem said that Britain has offered several alternatives for technical cooperation to develop production lines and increase production capacity, covering local and regional markets.

Hazem stressed the relative advantages of investing in Egypt in terms of the geographical location close to the Arab and African markets, the provision of qualified labor and the energy needed for production, in addition to the various trade agreements that guarantee the access of products manufactured in Egypt to the neighboring regional markets.

[eurocoin]

The Royal Mint has been talking with the Egyptians for quite some time now. Delegations of both institutions have also previously met each other in New York. Not much seems to have materialized yet.

[eurocoin]

And now the Canadians also went on business trip to Egypt:

«Finance»: Benefiting from the Canadian experience in the «mint»

Dr. Mohamed Maait, Minister of Finance, affirmed that we aim to localize distinguished global expertise in the field of minting circulating and commemorative coins, by strengthening aspects of cooperation with international partners. In a way that contributes to increasing production and pumping new investments into the production of coins with local components, along with developing human capabilities, to turn Egypt into a "regional exporter" of high-quality coins and souvenirs, covering the needs of African and Arab markets.

In his meeting with a Canadian delegation comprising representatives of the Royal Canadian Mint, headed by Marie Lemay, head of the Canadian Mint, and Canadian Ambassador to Cairo Louis Dumas, the minister added that we look forward to researching ways to benefit from the technical expertise of the Canadian mint in the project of establishing a modern and advanced mint in the economic zone. to the Suez Canal; In a way that helps in optimally exploiting the capabilities of the Egyptian Treasury and Mint, which is one of only two companies in the African continent and the Middle East specialized in currency minting, as well as expanding the use of the latest technological solutions to stimulate economic activity.

The Canadian delegation praised the expertise available in the Egyptian mint, which they saw during their visit, expressing their aspiration to study opportunities to enhance cooperation with the Egyptian side in this field, especially with what they learned about the promising potential of the new mint project to be established in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. Major General Hossam Khader, Head of the Public Treasury and Mint Authority, said that we have advanced capabilities and multiple experiences, and we have a plan to develop the department that aims to expand production and increase reliance on the local component, and to ensure the quality of work; In a way that achieves the relative advantages of investing in Egypt in terms of the geographical location close to the African markets, the availability of qualified labor and the energy needed for production, in addition to the various trade agreements that guarantee the access of products manufactured in Egypt to the neighboring regional market






Source: Almasryalyoum

[eurocoin]

I still do not really see how The Royal Mint and the Royal Canadian Mint will benefit from their cooperation to this project.

[Pabitra]

May be trying to rent out second hand striking presses, due to low capacity utilisation in the parent branch. In addition, there is no harm to trying to get orders from other nations in the region, by utilising good contacts of local partner.

[Figleaf]

The subject of development aid is complicated and frustrating. This sort of "co-operation" is often seen as a way to spend development aid somewhat more efficiently. Possible items could be:

- project financing: credits for modernisation of the Egyptian mint, at least partly financed by payments for orders of the Egyptian government to the mint (a shift of operational risk to the donors, possibly a cheap loan or a long-term loan with a duration equal to the estimated life of the equipment bought.)
- local cost financing: the European governments buy up surplus Egyptian pounds from other non-Egyptian investors and spend them on installing or even housing the equipment. A constructor or technical bureau from a donor country does a joint venture for the project with an Egyptian constructor, i.a. to hide the graft payments.
- recurrent cost financing: the Egyptian government agrees to finance maintenance and repair during the life of the agreement, possibly with some mechanism to nudge the Egyptians to actually comply.
- training: the European governments offer training to Egyptian mint staff.
- since minting machines are electric, counting the project as zero emission (scope 1) financing, forgetting about the metal use (scope 2).

The cost of the above would actually be born by the donor governments and financed out of development aid budgets. The donors gain some control on the money spent efficiently, partly offset by making sure their national champions don't have to compete with ugly foreign competitors (tied aid).

The Egyptians get financing for a complicated project that would probably otherwise be difficult to finance with development aid, at the cost of accepting the usual development aid bureaucracy.

Sorry for bitter sarcasm above, generated by bitter experience.

Peter

[eurocoin]

The Egyptian Cabinet initially approved Wednesday 14 September, a proposal to conclude a partnership agreement between the Public Treasury, the Egyptian mint, and the British Royal Mint.

The new agreement aims to establish a British-Egyptian mint in the Suez Canal economic zone (SCZone), as well as issuing and minting a LE 2 coin to be put into circulation.

[Pabitra]

Any update?
The facility to strike half a billion pieces a year was to get inaugurated by end of February.
Royal mint is silent about this project, capital expenditure etc. in their budget.

[coinote]

Now the value of a bimetallic 1 pound coin is about 2 cents, so the more coins they mint, the more money they will lose.

[Figleaf]

Royal mint is silent about this project, capital expenditure etc. in their budget.

It's highly unlikely to come out of their budget. It would come out of some development aid budget and would likely not be specified, but hidden in a figure for total aid to Egypt.

Peter

[Pabitra]

The Royal mint is expected to be a partner in the corporation and I assume that, being a corporation, they will have to contribute to the equity.

[coinote]

Just came back from Egypt and I am telling you some of my experience in using coins in Egypt, the most commonly used coin is 1 pound, you can 100% get them when you buy metro tickets, but some of the small shops/restaurants(50% of chance) did not have enough coins to give change, so the prices were rounded up or down to 5 pound notes, some big surpermarkets gave me 50 piastre coins as change, the 25 piastre coins were still in circulation but in very limited level, when I took local ferry to cross the river Nile in Luxor, I saw a local paid the fare(1 pound for local and 10 pounds for foreigners) using 4pcs of 25 piastre coins, and one of them were a 1993 dated 25p coin(with a hole in the centre), so the older series could still be used as payment, but rarely seen, 1 pound banknote was still in use, but not as common as 1 pound coins, both paper and polymer versions of 10 and 20 pounds were in wide circulation.

[augsburger]

I went to Egypt back in 2001, and the only coins I saw were people selling them at the airport when I arrived. Only banknotes were seen, but I was only in Luxor.

[eurocoin]

The Royal Mint has refused to comment on the status of the plans to open a British-Egyptian mint in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.