By Mohamed El-Atroosh and Shaimaa Rouf The Association for Business Development inaugurated Ebda (meaning “Start" in Arabic), a new foundation to fund small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially for training in the technical, administrative, and marketing fields. Donations from the business society to fund the project have amounted to EGP 100 million. The Association for Business Development has reached an agreement with several Indian educational institutes to train 100 young Egyptians in marketing and business administration, stated Hassan Malek, President of the association. The agreement is part of a plan to train Egyptian youth through local and international partnerships. Ebda is expected to announce its partnership with the Embassy of the Netherlands on July 9th. According to Ahmed Seda, director of the project with the Dutch Embassy, the partnership will help stimulate economic development in Egypt through funding joint Dutch-Egyptian business projects. Such ventures are intended to encourage business between Dutch and Egyptian companies and bring business experts to aid Egyptian companies. The foundation plans to focus on reformulating laws such as the tax code and monopoly laws, which Malek describes as major impediments to investors and individuals hoping to start a business. Ebda is also in the process of negotiating with large companies in Cairo to establish small and medium sized projects. The organisation has started to receive proposals for several small projects such as one to conduct studies aimed at reducing the importation of school bags and producing them domestically instead since Egypt currently imports 3 million school bags annually. Adel Ibrahim, President of the Board of Directors for the Association for Business Development, said that the project was also targeting Alexandria. “The Association is currently setting up a roadmap to develop the Alexandria's economy and to improve investment in the Alexandria governorate through cooperation with a variety of business organisations."
