The Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) Monday. The MoU aims to spread awareness of the EGX's role as a platform to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and promote cooperation in raising awareness of the operating companies on the role of stock market, especially in Upper Egypt. The two parties agreed to take advantage of the EGX office located in the investors' building in the Sohag governorate to place screens that will reflect the daily movement of the EGX trading, to enable visitors to follow- up on the stock movement on a daily basis. EGX will hold training sessions for GAFI employees on the stock market operations, EGX trading, as well as the advantages of listing in the stock market. The training aims to qualify the employees to educate investors on the role of the stock market and funding opportunities offered for different sized companies. Chairman of the EGX Mohammad Omran said that cooperation between the EGX and GAFI is an extension of an ongoing and permanent cooperation between the two parties, noting that this agreement expresses the EGX management's desire to access to the largest number of companies to help them gain financing. Omran added that the agreement focuses on the Upper Egypt area, which previously suffered from a low degree of official attention; despite having high capabilities that can contribute to creating more jobs. For his part, GAFI CEO Alaa El-Deen Omar said that supporting SMEs is a clear government direction, and is part of raising the competition of the Egyptian economy by taking advantage of the promising possibilities of SMEs. Omar added that the training of GAFI employees on the stock market will be an important factor in transferring experience to companies that deal with GAFI, which ensures a rapid increase of awareness on EGX on a large scale, which would serve the Egyptian economy. In the context of financing and supporting SMEs, Banque Misr is negotiating with the World Bank to acquire a €80m (EGP 688m) loan to support SMEs in Egypt. The bank is seeking to use the loan to refinance SME clients, as they represent a great importance in creating job opportunities for youth in the upcoming period.
