Egypt's Investment Minister Osama Saleh said on Sunday the ministry is seeking to speed up the anticipatory alliance project between the Egyptian and Turkish stocks exchanges. Saleh said the ministry has discussed the immediate mechanisms to launch the tie-up project between the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) and Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE). Minister Saleh has met with Istanbul bourse representatives on the sidelines of the Turkish-Arab Economic Forum which was held in Istanbul on April 4 and 5. On Thursday, Ibrahim Turhan – ISE's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, announced that Egypt and Turkey's bourses will be finalizing their alliance project very soon. On the sidelines of the Turkish-Arab Economic Forum, Turhan added that the Egyptian Exchange and Istanbul Stock Exchange are hoping that their alliance would include other countries' bourses to cover all the region. The Turkey-based Anadolu Agency has quoted Turhan as saying: “I believe you will see soon a wider merger and more powerful alliance in the financial services sector." Egypt's anticipatory alliance with the Istanbul Stock Exchange will allow investors in the two countries to trade on each other's markets. Under the proposal, which follows a memorandum of understanding signed by the two exchanges last June, Turkish investors would be able to trade directly on the Egyptian bourse through Turkish brokerages and vice versa. "A delegation from the Istanbul Stock Exchange will visit Egypt in December ... to discuss the means of joint trading between the Egyptian bourse and the Istanbul bourse," the EGX chairman, Mohamed Omran explained.
