Problems persist, and new challenges on the environmental front need to be tackled. Lake Maryut once provided rich fishing and recreational waters. Today it is an environmental disaster. Not only has the historic and once beautiful lake become an eyesore, but the fish are dying and fishermen are forced to seek employment elsewhere in such areas as construction and refuse collection and sorting. Unemployment is rising, crime rates are up, incomes are falling and health problems have multiplied.
Poisonous gases emanating from the waters of the lake are a source of concern.
ABA's small business project aimed at firms located in the city's slum areas was singled out for praise. Another problem stressed at the seminar was that while the international financial system is no longer in danger of collapse following the Asian crisis, credit continues to contract. FDI is now returning to the industrially advanced countries of the North, and there is a noticeable reversal of flows of FDI to the emerging markets of the South. In Egypt, FDI is a major conduit to sophisticated technology. In his opening speech ABA Chairman Mohamed Ragab said that there is an increasing number of new projects in Alexandria and that over half have a foreign equity component.