The Egyptian Investment Minister has said the government has cancelled plans to partially privatise some public sector firms through distributing free shares to citizens, Reuters has reported. "No shares shall be distributed among people under the proposed 'citizen ownership' programme, neither through free bonds nor through any other forms," Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin said in a statement. The proposal included giving all Egyptians over the age of 21, about 41 million people, free coupons for shares in public firms slated for privatisation.