Bassel Rahmy, CEO of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA), emphasized enhancing Egyptian startups with both financial and technical support, by working on developing innovative ideas to reach the commercialized stage. "Such set of supportive programs targeting entrepreneurs, and innovative ventures is designed and carried out according to an integrated and professional framework and comes in cooperation with development partners and international organizations that have full conviction and confidence in the Egyptian youth's great opportunities and their ability to establish their startups at home as well as expand in regional and global markets," Rahmy said. As well, pointed out that the World Bank comes at the top of those supporting the entrepreneurship eco-system in Egypt, which MSMEDA cooperates with to implement a variety of professional technical support programmes. Rahmy's remarks came on the occasion of the implementation of a 3-day workshop that was co-organized by the World Bank and MSMEDA for a group of innovative ventures and entrepreneurship-supportive organizations, with the aim of providing them with the best practices in expanding regionally by evaluating startups, targeted markets, risks assessment, planning and developing products and services suitable for those markets.
The workshop is part of the "Accelerating High Growth Entrepreneurship in Egypt" Programme which is implemented by the World Bank with support from the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. MSMEDA and the World Bank hosted dozens of startup founders to strengthen their capabilities to expand and grow into international markets alongside representatives of accelerators, incubators and service providers for the sector. MSMEDA's CEO added that the specialized technical capacity-building programmes for startup founders and ESOs aim to enhance their ability to maintain their businesses in light of the economic transformation witnessed by the country on the one hand and to help them take the appropriate decision, especially in the area of regional and global markets expansion on the other hand, which in turn will enhance their ability to attract necessary investments to develop their companies. Rahmy pointed out that the design of these workshops according to best international practices comes at the top of MSMEDA's priorities to support startups, creating a suitable investment environment increasing the number of those startups and enhance the ability of entrepreneurs to transform their innovative ideas into real projects that has strong success and growth opportunities. As such workshops are a successful channel to exchange ideas with eco-system players, whether founders, accelerators, business incubators and/or service providers. In a field where technology plays a prominent role and accelerates its developments.
Rahmy said that availing supportive programs to Egyptian startups comes as a complementary effort to other programmes implemented by MSMEDA to support the founders, especially MSMEDA's Venture Capital Programme, which is funded by the World Bank with the aim of supporting existing or new venture capital fund managers and helping startups to access regional and international markets.
