The parliament’s economic committee has called on the Ministry of International Cooperation to reveal all the loans that Egypt has received, as well as details of its expenditures and the annual commitments.
During a meeting on Monday, the committee tackled the consumer protection draft law as well as the presidential decree which approved the letters signed in Cairo on July 21st between Egypt and Spain. The letters modified the memorandum of understanding signed in 2008 between the two countries over financial cooperation.
In 2008, the ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with the Spanish ministry of industry, trade and tourism at 250 million euros, which ended in December 2012 and was extended to 2015.
Spain has proposed extending the memorandum to 2018. The agreed modifications include increasing the sum of money mentioned in the memorandum to 300 million euros, as the remaining loan tranche was worth 175.8 million euros.
The committee slammed the government for what it considered as ignoring its frequent calls on joining the "Private Funds" to the budget.
Meanwhile, during the debate on the draft law on the consumer protection, Rana Gamaly, the representative of the Chamber of Food Industries, opened the discussion on the rights of the companies that have complaints registered against them.
However, Major General Atef Yaaqoub, chief of the Consumer Protection Agency, said “the philosophy of the law is based on protecting the weak.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
