Egypt is currently holding intensive talks with a number of North African clearing houses, seeking to activate the linkage process within the current year. Mohamed Abdel Salam, chairman of Egypt's Central Clearing, Depository and Registry house (MCDR), stated that this comes in the wake of a decree from the Africa & Middle East Depositories Association (AMEDA) stressing the need for the GCC countries and the North Africa region to be linked with Egypt's MCDR, as well as the other African securities depository centers through South Africa's Strate Ltd. Abdel-Salam further noted that MCDR is currently in talks with its counterparts in Morocco, looking forward to finalizing the tie-up process in the near future and to reaching similar agreements with the rest of North Africa countries within this year. Abdel-Salam stated that MCDR has already managed to link up with South Africa's Central Securities Depository (Strate), which is currently following up the transactions carried out by the investors in the Egyptian and South African markets. It is worth noting that Egypt and Turkey will be soon finalizing the transfer mechanism of funds and securities to carry out the clearing house tie-up process as soon as the expectant alliance project between the two countries' stock exchanges comes into force which is expected to be within the first half of 2013.
