Egypt to pass mining and industrial land laws next week -minister

Egypt will pass laws next week related to mining and the allocation of industrial land as it pursues reforms to attract foreign investors deterred by political turmoil, the investment minister said on Tuesday. But Ashraf Salman gave few details about the content of the laws at a press conference with a visiting Russian minister. He also did not mention other anticipated legal reforms such as those related to bankruptcies, liquidation and capital repatriation. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government in July took the politically sensitive steps of cutting energy subsidies and raising taxes, hoping to fix the state's finances and restore confidence in the battered economy. Sisi then placed infrastructure mega-projects like the development of a logistics and industrial hub around the Suez Canal at the top of his economic agenda, in a bid to create jobs in a country with double-digit unemployment.