The Board of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has issued an initiative aimed at granting medium and long-term soft loans to finance machinery and equipment and production lines medium enterprises operating in the industrial and agricultural sectors. The CBE stated on its website that it would avail banks in phases EGP5 billion, which they would then lend to medium-sized companies, i.e. those with annual sales of EGP20-100 million, at a 7% annually decreasing interest rate with a maximum loan tenure of 10 years. Each client can only apply to this programme once with a maximum loan of EGP20 million from a single bank. The directive also states that banks should concentrate on those activities which focus on import substitution and/or exports. (CBE)