Mona El-Baradei, CEO of Egyptian Banking Institute, said that banking sector has many opportunities to develop national economy, noting that the banks rely currently on increasing investments volume to finance budget deficit. In the conference of “Egyptian Banking Institute role in boosting growth rate and developing Egyptian economy" organized by EBI on Tuesday, El-Baradei said that EBI will launch the first data base for SMEs in cooperation with Central Bank of Egypt and Central Agency for public Mobilization and Statistics to help banks in financing SMEs. Tarek Amer, chairman of National Bank of Egypt, said that the banks did not stop funding projects as banks are offering long term loans up to 15 years to electricity sector, while banks in other countries did not do this. Banks are not responsible for the problems Egyptian economy is facing such as budget deficit, GNP slowdown and unemployment rate increase, Amer affirmed. The increased budget deficit came as a result of raising expenditures to meet the demands of raising wages and salaries. Mohamed Sakr, professor of economics at faculty of economy and political studies, said that there is a direct relationship between economic growth and investments rate, as high economic growth cannot be attained without investments. Sakr assured on the important role that National bank of Egypt and Banque Misr played in supporting developmental projects especially tourism projects, while many other banks stopped financing these projects. Islamic Banks competed with commercial banks and did not do its role in long-term investments; instead it focused on distributing returns for 3 months Second research competition awards, organized by EBI, were announced in the conference. Banque Misr acquired 7 awards, National Bank of Egypt took an award, Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit took 2 awards and Commercial International Bank took an award. The conference was attended by Tarek Amer, chairman of NBE; Mounir Zahed, chairman of Banque du Caire; Fathy El-Sebaei, chairman of Housing and Development Bank; Maged Fahmy, chairman of Export Development Bank; Mohamed Abbas Farid, vice chairman of Banque Misr; Mona El-Baradei, CEO of EBI and senior banking experts as well as professors of economics.
