Eleven Egyptian entrepreneurs, among 146 individuals from the Middle East, will participate in the seventh annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) that will be held from 22-24 June in California.
Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs at the US department of state Ziad Haider said that the United States is seeking to continue supporting entrepreneurship in Egypt.
During his meeting with a number of journalists on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Road to GES: 2016 conference, he said that he will meet with senior Egyptian officials and businessmen to strengthen the capabilities of entrepreneurship and innovation to raise living standards, create jobs, and build strong markets that meet consumers’ needs.
He noted that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) recently provided funding worth $23m to be directed to the owners of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and entrepreneurs through the SEED programme.
The United States has announced an investment of $45m in new programmes through the US Agency for International Development, to support companies and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in Egypt and train students to compete for jobs.
SEED is one of the programmes with a financing value worth $23m, and the programme provides technical assistance to small businesses in Egypt to qualify them to get bank loans, develop new business ideas, and conduct market research.
A total of $22.1m was assigned to finance a new educational programme entitled “manpower improvement and skills enhancement” to support the quality of education in Egyptian schools, particularly through partnership with industry and services companies to develop technical skills for students and job seekers.
He added that the US is considering a range of financial incentives to support entrepreneurship and the SMEs sector in Egypt.
The Egyptian-American fund is the most important project, which depends on distributing its capital on the Egyptian investment’s funds that are providing finances to develop SMEs.
The fund began its work in 2013. The initial capital amounted to $60m.
He noted that the Fund spent $10m through the investment’s funds to support the communication technologies sector in Egypt
Tags: Global Entrepreneurship Summit, USAID, SMEs
