Egyptian PM in UAE to launch industrial partnership initiative

Egypt’s Prime Minister Dr Moustafa Madbouli, accompanied by a high-level ministerial delegation, on Saturday arrived in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi to participate at a tripartite meeting to launch an industrial partnership initiative.

The integrated industrial partnership initiative aims to achieve economic sustainable development between Egypt, the UAE and Jordan and contribute to supporting industrial integration among the three countries.

The delegation includes Ministers of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Planning and Economic Development, Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Trade and Industry as well as a host of senior officials.

The premier is set to hold a meeting with a number of UAE investors to brief them on promising investment opportunities in Egypt and incentives offered by the government to attract further investments.

Egypt’s economy posted a 7.8%  growth in the nine-month period to March 2022, far outpacing the 1.9 per cent GDP growth recorded in the same period a year earlier, a minister said recently.

The economy grew 5.4 per cent in the Jan-March quarter, a government statement cited Planning Minister Hala al-Saeed as telling a cabinet meeting. Egypt’s fiscal year starts on July 1.

IsDB Group Annual Meetings: The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group affiliated entities are set to hold their 2022 Annual Meetings on the sideline of the 47th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the IsDB, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from 1st to 4th June, 2022, under the theme “Beyond Recovery: Resilience and Sustainability.”

The IsDB Group 2022 Annual Meetings in Sharm El-Sheikh come in response to an invitation from the Arab Republic of Egypt, with an aim to enhance cooperation together and consolidate economic relations amongst IsDB Group member countries.

Representatives from international and regional financial institutions, Islamic banks, national development finance institutions, business associations, and consultants from member countries are attending the activities preceding the meetings.

The meetings mainly comprise the 29th Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC); the 22nd General Assembly of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD); and the 17th Meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC).

Speaking On the occasion, Dr. Hala El Said, Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development, and IsDB Governor for the country, has underlined the importance of the strategic partnership between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the IsDB Group and its entities in a way that achieves all relevant stakeholders development and economic growth.

She noted that IsDB’s Group’s private sector development arm — the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) — plays a leading role in its mandate through direct financing operations, offering asset management, encouraging cross border investments, developing Islamic capital markets, and providing financial advisory services. She also expressed her keenness to facilitate the cooperation between the Bank and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt with the aim of achieving the country’s development goals, thus creating wealth for future generations.

The Minister pointed out that IsDB Group’s investment insurance arm - the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC) - plays an important role in supporting Egyptian investors and exporters. It amplifies the entity’s activities and services in Egypt while setting up a lasting mechanism for the promotion process, to attract incoming foreign investments and provide opportunities for Egyptian exports to enter foreign markets.

“ICIEC has so far provided relevant insurance coverage for $7.35 billion worth of businesses in Egypt, including covering operations related to imports and exports, credit services on exports and securing foreign investments, making Egypt among the first ten countries that benefit from ICIEC’s insurance services,” she added.

For his part, Ayman Amin Sejiny, CEO of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), stated that the Corporation plays a vital, complementary role in implementing IsDB and the international financial institutions’ activities that take place within the member countries, pointing out that Egypt has been acquiring a long history and an extended relationship with the Bank and its affiliated institutions since 1974, which has resulted in a Group cooperation portfolio of more than $16 billion.

Additionally, he clarified that the corporation attaches primary importance to working on establishing, expanding, and modernising the private sector through financing projects of a myriad of companies, along with other Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and those projects get evaluated as per their contribution to the economic development; via creating job opportunities and thus facilitating the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

WAM