Following China and India’s footsteps, Egypt will link small and medium enterprises (SME) with larger ones as to encourage investors, Invest-Gate reports.  

“Big and small factories are equally important–linking them together is even more important. The small investor is afraid to take risk and go on with a business that he may be unable to market properly,” Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr told Egyptian TV at National Youth Forum held in Aswan on January 27 and 28.

“When both are joined, small entrepreneurs are guaranteed the selling of their goods to larger enterprises,” she added.

There is an effort to bring the state, private sector and civil society together to develop Upper Egypt, as this side of the country has been neglected in terms of economic development in the past years, Nasr revealed. In September 2016, the Ministry of International Cooperation received a USD 500 mn grant from the World Bank to fund the Upper Egypt governorates.