Dr. Hala Al-Saeed, Minister of Planning and Economic Development and Governor of Egypt at the Islamic Development Bank Group; Engineer Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation and Acting CEO of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector; Dr. Ali Al-Moselhi, Minister of Supply and Internal Trade; and Eng. Tarek El-Mulla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources; Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, via video conference witnessed the signing of the annual work program between the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation and the Arab Republic of Egypt for 2024.
Signing the agreement was Engineer Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation and Acting CEO of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector; Mr. Ahmed Youssef Mansour, Advisor to the Minister of Supply supervising the General Authority for Supply Commodities; and Accountant Ashraf Abdullah, Assistant Minister of Petroleum for Financial and Economic Affairs for the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation.
That step comes within the framework agreement signed between the two sides for a period of 5 years, within the framework of the institution’s strategy to work with vital sectors in the Arab Republic of Egypt to contribute to increasing the growth rate, achieving sustainable economic development, and creating more Job opportunities for youth and women.
As part of the institution’s efforts to support foreign trade and the export sector, the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation is coordinating with the relevant ministries and Egyptian authorities to implement several programs aimed at developing trade. In this regard, the Arab-African Trade Bridges Program implements several activities to support Egyptian exporters in accessing new foreign markets.
Moreover, several important projects are also being approved and implemented by the Assistance for Trade Initiative for Arab Countries (Aftiyas 2.0) program in its second phase, such as launching the Export Academy in cooperation with the Egyptian Exporters Authority “Expo Link” and following up on the implementation of the “She Trades” program in both traditional crafts and food industries sectors, in addition to following up on the implementation of the training program “A Step towards Export” to support small exporters and small business owners.
At the end of the ceremony, the ministers and the CEO of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation honored the distinguished graduates of the Step for Export Training Initiative program, which the institution launched last year in partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority and the Foreign Trade Training Center, during which 600 male and female entrepreneurs were trained and qualified in Export at the Foreign Trade Training Center to prepare a generation of qualified exporters and contribute to developing the competitiveness of Egyptian exports in global markets.
