A delegation from the Egyptian-African Businessmen Association held, Headed by Dr. Yousrey ElSharkawi, accpeted The delegation of the African Development Bank held intensive meetings in Cairo today. With the aim of reviewing distinguished experiences in the private sector from members of the association who wish to expand within the continent and are fully qualified, As well as discussing ways to strengthen and develop the partnership and support the continuous work between the association and the bank within the framework of raising the levels of coordination between the strategic partners in the continent.
These meetings come on the occasion of the visit of Solomon Koinor – Vice President of the Bank and Head of Industrial and Infrastructure Projects for the Private Sector on the Continent. The meeting was attended by Samuel Heijni, Director of Financial Partnerships and Customer Solutions, from the bank’s side. Malin Bloomberg, Deputy Director General of the Bank for North Africa, and Tarek Ammar, an international expert in financing private sector projects at the Bank, It was attended by members of the association And Eng. Hazem Zayed, CEO of Cairo Tree A Group, As well as Eng. Mohsen Badawy, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vaccine Valley Company for Vaccines, and Dr. Khaled Derbala, Head of Shree ICMI for Information Technology and Technology Solutions.
Dr. Yousrey ElSharkawi presented the vision and strategy of the association and the private sector partners, and the private sector’s orientation towards the African continent to enter into joint investments that serve to support small and medium enterprises. As well as entrepreneurs in the continent in areas related to the agricultural and industrial sectors on the continent, In a way that achieves the orientations of the Egyptian state towards joint African action in a new model of will that Egypt has not witnessed before in this spirit,
ElSharkawi stressed that we are looking forward to finding financing solutions from the African Development Bank in coordination with the Central Bank of Egypt, provided that these solutions are unconventional and encouraging in the sectors of public health, agriculture, food security, energy and communication technology. Emphasizing that we must all work to provide for our needs from within the continent, And that Egypt needs the crops of yellow corn, oils, cotton and rice from the land of the continent. We have to think about how to push private sector investment into the African depth in high-risk sectors such as agriculture.
Solomon Quinor expressed his happiness at what he sees in Egypt as a development experience, And he believes that it is necessary to focus on specific sectors in which we can achieve success, and then move on to other sectors. And that we can actually coordinate with the Central Bank of Egypt to support private sector investments in the African depth, Stressing that financing of large-scale plantations of agricultural crops such as corn, cotton and oils can indeed be considered and provided for the needs of the continent, Especially since Egypt possesses the technical expertise and the development experience that qualifies the private sector in it to succeed within the African continent.
Malini Bloomberg confirmed, On the necessity of holding bilateral meetings between the bank and the association’s committees to systematically come up with working papers for projects that must be entered into directly with optimal solutions; To remove obstacles, problems and challenges that were facing any previous initiatives so that we can produce effective positive results, specifically in supporting small projects because they are the mainstay of real and basic development on the continent.
At the end of the meeting, the attendees agreed to allocate meetings between members of the association and the bank’s team in Cairo to activate the requirements of the private sector in coordination with the relevant authorities within the country.
Dr. Yousrey ElSharkawi, chairman of the association, By honoring the African Development Bank and a special honor by Solomon Quinor for the efforts of the Bank in the framework of supporting cooperation with the Egyptian private sector. ElSharkawi confirmed, We will coordinate an African economic, investment and trade conference between the Egyptian and Nigerian sides that will include a high-level presence at the level of the business community in both countries before the end of this year.