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Egypt Announces Expected Turkish Investments in Several Sectors

 Handmade traditional souvenir clothes are displayed for sale in a popular tourist area in old Cairo, Egypt May 22, 2022. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
 Handmade traditional souvenir clothes are displayed for sale in a popular tourist area in old Cairo, Egypt May 22, 2022. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
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Egypt Announces Expected Turkish Investments in Several Sectors

 Handmade traditional souvenir clothes are displayed for sale in a popular tourist area in old Cairo, Egypt May 22, 2022. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
 Handmade traditional souvenir clothes are displayed for sale in a popular tourist area in old Cairo, Egypt May 22, 2022. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Egyptian Trade Minister Ahmed Samir said on Friday that the Turkish KOC Holding group intends to expand its activities in the Egyptian market in the coming period in the sectors of vehicles, medical products and new energy.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, published by the Egyptian Presidency of the Council of Ministers on its Facebook page, said that Samir, who is currently visiting Türkiye, met with representatives of the group to discuss its future vision to increase investments in the Egyptian market.

The statement quoted the minister as saying that the group seeks to expand in the Egyptian market through the establishment of a factory for auto-feeding industries, and another for pharmaceuticals, in addition to cooperation with the Suez Canal Economic Zone in the field of new and renewable energy and wind energy.

The group also aims to cooperate in the field of yacht marinas as well as oven manufacturing with the Arab Organization for Industrialization, according to the statement.

Representatives of the Turkish Holding Group pointed to the importance of benefiting from Egypt’s position as a commercial and investment hub in Africa, as well as taking advantage of the preferential free trade agreements that Cairo has signed with the countries of the continent.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s sovereign dollar bonds rose on Friday, after an unexpected decision to raise interest rates on Thursday evening.

Longer-dated maturities gained the most, with the 2048 rising by up to 1.4 cents, according to Tradeweb data. Bonds maturing 2040 and beyond gained one cent or more, but the shorter-dated maturities up until 2031 rose between 0.5-0.9 cents.

Egypt’s central bank raised overnight interest rates by 100 basis points on Thursday in a surprise move, saying it sought to contain inflationary pressures and anchor inflation expectations, Reuters reported.

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US Treasury Targets Russia's Gazprombank with New Sanctions

FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
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US Treasury Targets Russia's Gazprombank with New Sanctions

FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

The United States imposed new sanctions on Russia's Gazprombank on Thursday, the Treasury Department said, as President Joe Biden steps up actions to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine before he leaves office in January.
The move, which wields the department's most powerful sanctions tool, effectively kicks Gazprombank out of the US banking system, bans its trade with Americans and freezes its US assets, Reuters reported.
Gazprombank is one of Russia's largest banks and is partially owned by Kremlin-owned gas company Gazprom. Since Russia's invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has been urging the US to impose more sanctions on the bank, which receives payments for natural gas from Gazprom's customers in Europe.
The fresh sanctions come days after the Biden administration allowed Kyiv to use US ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory. On Tuesday, Ukraine fired the weapons, the longest range missiles Washington has supplied for such attacks on Russia, on the war's 1,000th day.
The Treasury also imposed sanctions on 50 small-to-medium Russian banks to curtail the country's connections to the international financial system and prevent it from abusing it to pay for technology and equipment needed for the war. It warned that foreign financial institutions that maintain correspondent relationships with the targeted banks "entails significant sanctions risk."
"This sweeping action will make it harder for the Kremlin to evade US sanctions and fund and equip its military," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. "We will continue to take decisive steps against any financial channels Russia uses to support its illegal and unprovoked war in Ukraine."
Gazprombank said Washington's latest move would not affect its operations. The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Along with the sanctions, Treasury also issued two new general licenses authorizing US entities to wind down transactions involving Gazprombank, among other financial institutions, and to take steps to divest from debt or equity issued by Gazprombank.
Gazprombank is a conduit for Russia to purchase military materiel in its war against Ukraine, the Treasury said. The Russian government also uses the bank to pay its soldiers, including for combat bonuses, and to compensate the families of its soldiers killed in the war.
The administration believes the new sanctions improve Ukraine's position on the battlefield and ability to achieve a just peace, a source familiar with the matter said.
COLLATERAL IMPACT
While Gazprombank has been on the administration's radar for years, it has been seen as a last resort because of its focus on energy and the desire to avoid collateral impact on Europe, a Washington-based trade lawyer said.
"I think that the current administration is trying to put as much pressure and add as many sanctions as possible prior to January 20th to make it harder for the next administration to unwind," said the lawyer, Douglas Jacobson.
Officials in Slovakia and Hungary said they were studying the impacts of the new US sanctions.
Trump would have the power to remove the sanctions, which were imposed under an executive order by Biden, if he wants to take a different stance, Jacobson said.
After Russia's invasion in 2022, the Treasury placed debt and equity restrictions on 13 Russian firms, including Gazprombank, Sberbank and the Russian Agricultural Bank.
The US Treasury has also worked to provide Ukraine with funds from windfall proceeds of frozen Russian assets.