International financial institutions praise Turathna Exhibition for handicrafts, heritage arts

Such projects provide job opportunities, improve living standards of their owners: EU official

A high-level group of representatives from international financial institutions visited the third edition of Egypt's Turathna Exhibition for handicrafts and heritage arts.
Nevine Gamea, Minister of Trade and Industry and Executive Director of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA), received the visiting delegation.
She said this visit reflected the great interest that these bodies attach to handicrafts and heritage arts in Egypt and confirmed their keenness to continue developing this sector.
This year's exhibition is seeing an increase in the number of exhibitors and the space allocated for display, as well as the participation of the Emirates, Jordan and Sudan with distinguished pavilions.
She emphasized that such a visit would represent a strong impetus to encourage project owners to develop their activities and enhance their competitiveness and access to global markets.
For his part, Ambassador Christian Berger, Head of the Delegation of the European Union Delegation to Egypt, said that such projects serve many sectors in villages, as they contribute effectively to providing job opportunities and improving living standards for their owners.
He stressed that the European Union is keen on cooperating with MSMEDA and establishing more Egyptian-European partnership to expand sponsoring and launching such activities to serve development endeavors in Egypt.
Basil El-Khatib, Regional Director of the United Nations Industrial Development Authority, praised the exhibition and its products which reflect Egyptian arts and cultures.
He stressed that such a service represents a real breakthrough that would contribute effectively to the development of projects and enable their owners to exploit their competitive advantages.
Sylvain Merlin, Deputy Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program, explained that the exhibition this year is witnessing a great development in terms of doubling the number of exhibitors and the space allocated for exhibits and participants from Egypt and the Arab countries, which confirms the great success achieved over the past two years.
Abeer Shakweer, Director of the Comprehensive Growth Portfolio Team of the United Nations Development Program, praised the permanent cooperation between the agency and the program in the various development directions of interest to the political leadership in Egypt.
She added that there is a new phase of cooperation that is witnessing more support for the small and micro enterprises sector, on top of which are a number of technical and marketing aspects that would stabilize and sustain these projects.
Eman Omran, Head of the Small and Medium Enterprises Program Team at the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, confirmed that the services provided by the exhibition to project owners, especially technical and advisory services through the Business Development Unit, are among the most important mechanisms that support the survival of projects, ensure their success and expansion, and make them able to achieve competitiveness and then compete in global markets.
Representatives of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation praised the exhibitors' products, quality and development, as well as the organization of the exhibition to include this number of exhibitors. The Corporation stressed its keenness on cooperating with MSMEDA on an ongoing basis to provide various aspects of support to project owners for expansion and continuity.
The representative of the Islamic Development Bank explained that the agency's interest in holding exhibitions for the products of project owners, such as the Turathna exhibition, confirms the agency's keenness on supporting the SMEs sector.
He stressed that the political leadership's interest in this sector encourages development institutions to cooperate more with various state agencies, including the agency, to provide more support to project owners.