The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and the China Development Bank signed a loan contract with a value of $600m to finance the working capital of the NBE’s clients.
The Chairperson of the NBE Hesham Okasha, CEO of Treasury, Foreign Relations and International Financial Services, Ghada El Bialy, president of the Foreign Relations, International and Financial Services, Hesham Elsafty, and head of the NBE’s Shanghai branch, Wael Saad, all attended the signing ceremony at China Development Bank headquarters in Beijing.
According to Okasha, the signing of this loan is a continuation of the confidence of international institutions in the Egyptian economy, which witnessed a wide economic reforms over the past years led to more stability, as well as recognition of the strength of the NBE’s financial position and its role in strengthening the Egyptian economy.
Okasha stressed the strong ties and fruitful partnership between the NBE and the China Development Bank, which dates back to 2012, in the framework of funding infrastructure and small and medium projects in Egypt.
Meanwhile, he added that the NBE has been in China since 1999, starting with a representation office, to become the first Egyptian and African bank in China.
After the continued success of the bank’s representative office there, which coincided with the steady increase in the volume of trade exchange between the two countries and the bank’s belief in the importance of maximising its role in the Chinese market; it raised the office to become a branch of the NBE in 2008, until it obtained license to deal in local currency in 2017, which improved its role, Okasha pointed out.
