What are the main challenges that the financial sector or the stock market is facing right now?
The first challenge is to get over the idea of the decline that took place in emerging markets in 1998, be it investors, individuals but especially institutional investors, to get over the idea of that crisis. The specific challenge that will face the Cairo Stock Exchange or the Cairo financial sector is providing equity and investment vehicles to investors. Local investors are very rich on cash in Cairo. They are waiting for good opportunities. The challenge is to put the criteria of what is a good investment because we are still on a learning curve when it comes to investors. They are not quite sure how to evaluate their investments. I think that we had a good year as far as foreign investors are concerned. The cash liquidity is available. International investors are looking at opportunities and as soon as they identify one they seize it. I see that they seize a lot of opportunities in Egypt. A challenge that will be facing companies primarily is the growth of earnings. The financial
