The Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, Sahar Nasr, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Minister of Youth and Sports, Ashraf Sobhy, and Chairperson of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA) Nevine Gamea. It aims to disseminate the culture of self-employment among young people, and encourage them to start new projects, or expand their existing ones.
According to Gamea, the MoU stipulates that the three parties will jointly hold seminars, conferences, and meetings at youth centres nationwide, to raise awareness about self-employment. On the other hand, another agreement will be effected to launch a series of exhibitions at the country’s different youth centres, to showcase start-ups’ products funded by the MSMEDA.
Gamea said that they will prepare qualified trainers from the youth ministry and affiliated bodies, to train young people for entrepreneurship, small and micro projects, and how to benefit from the non-financial services offered by the MSMEDA, such as technical and marketing support, as well as training. Moreover, a competition will be held for young people of both genders to encourage innovation. The winning projects will be funded by the MSMEDA.
The MSMEDA is working with various ministries to support small enterprises through providing financial and non-financial services, she noted.
Gamea praised the investment ministry’s efforts to provide sufficient funding for the MSMEDA to enable it to play its role in funding small and micro projects. She stressed the importance of continuing cooperation with the youth ministry to qualify young people, and encourage them to launch their own projects.
The cooperation between the country’s different institutions will contribute to achieving the comprehensive development of the small projects sector, which is in line with the state’s strategy to empower young people under Egypt’s Vision 2030, she emphasised.
