Egypt's annual financial markets summit kicks off on Monday

The annual summit for financial markets kicks off next Monday under the title "Structural Reforms for Sustainable Development." 

 

The event is held under the auspices of the Ministries of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, to discuss the structural reforms conducted by the Egyptian state across all economic sectors with the aim of creating sustainable development.

 

This year's summit will also be attended and sponsored by the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, the Voluntary Carbon Market, the Union of Securities, and the Consumer Finance Union.

 

Among the attendees are Mohamed Farid, the head of the Financial Regulatory Authority, with a special session featuring the head of Egypt's Sovereign Wealth Fund, Ahmed El Sheikh, and Hossam Heiba, the head of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones.

 

The summit addresses various issues in its eighth edition, particularly the executive measures for structural reforms by the Egyptian government, focusing on empowering the private sector, sustainable solutions for consecutive challenges, and creating sustainable foreign currency sources to avoid crises.

 

The summit sheds light on financial markets and their vital role in providing the required financing, assisting the government in facilitating the private sector's exit from government companies, offering new tools to attract investments, and diversifying the economy, including opportunities presented by launching a local carbon market.

 

The conference discusses the current collaboration with the International Monetary Fund to launch a new reform program involving financial and structural reforms, changing financial policies, focusing on inflation targeting, and the government's public offerings program as a core element.

 

Moreover, the conference delves into challenges facing companies in all economic sectors and how to manage them, especially with record increases in interest rates. It explores the role of financial market tools in solving part of the financing cost problems, managing the dollar, changing strategies to overcome the current challenge of managing foreign currency, and hedging plans against successive increases in raw material prices.

 

The conference also discusses the serious steps taken by the Financial Regulatory Authority and the Egyptian Exchange to create more innovative financial markets and digital transformation in non-banking financial activities, providing tools for companies in the sector to face current challenges in markets that need innovation to attract more financing in the right direction.

 

The summit comes in the wake of Egypt launching the voluntary carbon market and in serious steps towards launching a mandatory market. This necessitates addressing the role of these new markets in providing promising opportunities to attract direct foreign investments and the investors' willingness to trade carbon certificates. Additionally, it covers projects in green hydrogen that have successfully attracted strong foreign direct investments to Egypt in the past period, with participation from the Suez Canal Economic Zone to highlight its role in attracting these contracts.