The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) is organising Sunday its First Conference on Sustainable Development. The event is in presence of a large number of business leaders, local and foreign investors, and with the participation of local and international high-level officials. The conference' opening session will be attended by the Minister of Investment, the Minister of Environment, Chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) and EGX' Chairman. The rest of the conference' sessions will witness the participation of a number of high-level international organizations. The United Nations programme for women in Egypt and the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) alongside a number of the business community' leaders who have demonstrated a clear commitment to provide business models that are compatible with sustainable development efforts will take part in the sessions. From his part, Mohamed Omran - EGX Chairman – said: "EGX sustainability conference will be a chance for policy makers, capital market regulators, listed companies, investors, and all stakeholders to engage in a sustainability-related national dialogue that will help the Egyptian Capital market to contribute in Egypt sustainable development." The event is part of the EGX's efforts to support sustainable development practices and to encourage the business community to achieve greater commitment to integrate the sustainable development in the internal business strategies. EGX is considered as a pioneer exchange worldwide in encouraging the private sector companies to be committed to the sustainable development mechanisms, as being one of the first 5 stock exchanges in the world that launched the Sustainable Stock Exchanges' initiative (SSE) for Exchanges with sustainable development and social responsibility in 2009. The aim of this initiative, founded by the U.N. Secretary-General, is to increase the listed companies' transparency and commitment to the environmental and social issues management and corporate governance. "We can proudly say that EGX is one of the first international players to support sustainability in our field." Omran added "In March 2010, The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) was the first stock market in the MENA region and second worldwide to launch the sustainability index S&P/EGX ESG Index. EGX is an active member of UN-Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative (SSE) since 2012 where EGX contributed to the launching of the initiative and signed with other 4 exchanges on the SSE commitment to promote and enhance sustainability in capital markets. EGX also is an active member in the WFE - Sustainability Working Group (SWG) since 2014." "Building on this, EGX has taken advantage of its ability to access a large segment of the investment community to raise awareness about this important issue."
