President of the Egyptian Junior Business Association (EJB) Gamal Abo Ali has said the association pays great attention to business expansion in Africa. Speaking during a press conference on the sidelines of the formation of the EJB's new board of directors, Abo Ali pointed out that the association works on increasing trade missions between Egypt and African countries, in cooperation with the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, the Egyptian Commercial Service, African embassies in Egypt, and African investment agencies. Bassam El Shanwany, Secretary-General of the EJB, said the association worked on restructuring many files, merging committees, and developing many new strategies over the past 300 days to keep pace with the state's vision to develop the national economy. The restructure aims to help the state achieve Vision 2030, Shanwany added, affirming the importance of the private sector's role in supporting the government's plans. Mohamed Abdel Rahman, Vice Chairperson of the EJB, announced the launch of the "Round Table for Distribution and Logistics" initiative. Adel Rahman said the distribution sector has a great impact on the Egyptian economy, industrial sector and consumer. Mohamed Kaoud, head of the travel and tourism committee at the EJB, said the new board members should outline a new vision to face the current challenges and meet the association's needs in the coming period. Mohamed Abo Basha, an EJB member, noted the association targets boosting economic cooperation with its African counterparts as well as supporting communication among African countries through members of EJB or its counterparts. Abo Basha revealed that the EJB agriculture committee would launch the "Green Economy and Sustainable Development" initiative in light of the presidential directives to support the green economy, underlining the number of green projects, included in the plan for fiscal year (FY) 2020/21, is 691 projects at a total cost of about EGP 447.3bn, as 14% of the total public investments were directed to these projects, according to the Ministry of Planning. Naglaa Aqel, an EJB member, said that the new board of directors ordered enhancing ways of governance, stressing its importance for rescuing family businesses in Egypt, which only 13% of which reach the third generation, describing it as a great challenge.
