More news about the PPP legislation in Egypt. On May 16th the Finance Ministry said that they were beginning to prepare the executive rules of the law, which delineates how the private sector may participate in infrastructure and public sector projects.Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali said that he formed a joint legal committee including the heads of the finance, budget and partnership sector as well as his legal experts, to formulate the rules.Rania Zayed, head of the Public-Private Partnership Central Unit (PPP), said she expected the regulations to be issued within two months. The prime minister would issue the executive rules after they are submitted to him by the finance minister, she explained. The cabinet of minister then would approve the rules within three months from when they were submitted.Today, August 23rd,the website Almasryalyoum informed that the Finance Ministry's Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Central Unit has finalized draft regulations for proposed legislation governing partnerships between the public and private sectors, to be submitted to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif for approval. If the regulations receive the approval of the PM, they are expected to come into effect by September of this year.Another very important point that the article points out:

According to Zayed, negotiations are ongoing between the Central Unit and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to exempt partnership projects from credit ceilings for a single client--a policy implemented by Egyptian banks upon orders from the CBE.

Zayed said that the CBE had pledged to examine the possibility of allowing banks to grant PPP projects loans amounting to more than 25 percent of their overall capital.

It is also of special interest that three projects would be implemented as soon as the regulations were officially issued, including two sewage treatment stations--in Abu Rawwash and 6th October City--and a road corridor in Rod el-Farag.So, we'll have to wait to see the PPP road project "Rod El Farag" finally awarded. We'll keep you updated.Follow us on twitter!Take care!