The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) will be hosting the 16th annual General Meeting and flagship Conference of the African Securities Exchanges Association from December 3rd to December 5th 2012. Choosing Egypt to host ASEA's annual general meeting reflects Egypt's pioneering role in money market industry at the African level. ASEA provides a forum for mutual communication, exchange of information, cooperation and technological assistance among its members, to facilitate the process of financial integration within the region for the effective mobilization of capital to accelerate economic development of Africa. ASEA supports members in the establishment of Stock Exchanges and the development of financial instruments. The association also assists in promoting the development of standards of training and professionalism amongst members and other market players, standards of listing, trading and settlement of securities, the products and services of Africa's capital markets as well as the establishment of a data bank and information system. Together with enhancing member exchanges' joint programs, the association aims to harmonize standards for market principals in the region. On the first day, the ASEA Executive committee will hold its meeting under the chairmanship of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius followed by the annual general meeting. On the second and the third days, there will be a number of workshops to tackle investment in Africa and to discuss the importance of adopting reforms in the financial sector in the Black Continent as well as the key role investment banks (IBs) plays for the emerging markets. Additionally, those workshops will be also tackling the major challenges the SMEs stock exchanges in Africa face and the fundamental role technology shall play to upgrade the African stock exchanges. The last session will address the necessity of upgrading institutions' financial administration in Africa. In the meanwhile, the EGX has emphasized on its willingness to play a vital role so as to support the African stock markets. Noting that, EGX has chaired the ASEA for two successive terms from September 2005 to September 2007 and It has launched the ASEA website. It has hosted the ASEA annual general and flagship conferences from 2005 to 2009. Worth mentioning, ASEA is a non-profit company limited by guarantee that was found in Kenya on the 13th of November 1993, according to Chapter 486 of the Laws of Kenya, with the aim of establishing systematic mutual cooperation and exchange of information among its members. The association started with Nairobi Stock Exchange as the first member in 1993, followed by Mauritius, Uganda and Dar-es-Salam Stock Exchanges in the nineties. The association is currently represented by 20 exchanges in 27 African countries.
