Egypt's state-run bank giants, National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr (BM) signed Tuesday a memorandum of understanding with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), BM chairman announced. Mohamed Eletreby said the MoU aims to form an investment platform with the purpose of joint financing for projects in Egypt as well as provide support for Russian companies entering the Egyptian market. The Egyptian banking official further told Amwal Al Ghad that BM, NBE, RDIF would fund projects in the anticipated Russian industrial zone in Egypt, which will be built on a space of 2 million feddans in East Port Said area. The infrastructure and agriculture sectors will capture the lion's shares in projects that will be funded by the three parties, Eletreby added. The MoU was signed by Tagir Sitdekov, First Deputy CEO of RDIF, Hisham Okasha, Chairman of NBE, and Mohamed Eletreby, Chairman of BM, in the presence of the Egyptian Prime Minister, Sherif Ismail.
