A train journey to Alexandria has finally given me time to have a go at The Blog. I’ve struggled to fit it in while in Cairo, the days as crowded as the city. I’m going to join the Governor of Alexandria in opening the revamped Visa Application Centre: better services (like couriering passports back to their owners) and still good value for money compared to our Schengen competitors. Interesting to see in my notes that the refusal rate for Egyptian applicants is under 10%, and half the global rate.
One task still looms for the weekend – our Country Business Plan. I’m always struck when working on it just how many different things we are doing in Egypt – and with Egypt.
The British Council is a big part of that. I’ll join their event on Cartoons (with Steve Bell of The Guardian) on Saturday; and then help open their Skills for Employability session on Sunday. The whole partnership with Egypt on employment and skills is a real growth area. Good to see the President telling his Government to make this even more of a priority in newspaper headlines.
One of Egypt’s papers, picked up at the station in the early hours, has Britain featuring in two of its front page stories. Not all good news, as ever: (false) allegations of collusion in torture. Ironic, when we all know that improving the record of the security forces in this area and protecting human rights is an essential part of reducing extremism.
Nearly at Alex. I’m always struck by just how different the city is from Cairo. Good to get a breath of fresh sea air, even if there are specks of rain in it. Let’s hope someone can find an umbrella for the Governor…
Posted at 18:01 05 May 2009 by Jon Davies | Comments[1]
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Posted by seo on July 27, 2009 at 03:41 PM BST #