From May 28th to 30th , ITPO
Italy, in collaboration with INSME and the
International Training Center of the ILO, organized
a series of meetings in Rome, Bologna, and Turin for
a delegation from the Egyptian General Authority for
Investment (GAFI), led by it’s Chairman, Eng. Assam
Raga.
In the framework of its capacity-building
activities, IPU Egypt coordinated a study tour for
the GAFI in Rome, Athens, Manchester, Marseille,
and Paris, in collaboration with the respective
ITPOs. This mission was aimed also at identifying
strategic European partners to assist this Egyptian
institution to improve the services that it
currently offers to investors and, especially, to
local SMEs.
In Rome, the GAFI delegation met institutions
specialized in financial support to enterprises (SACE
and SIMEST), business associations (CNA and
ASSAFRICA), the Business Innovation Center of the
Lazio Region (BIC LAZIO), a network of institutions
that support SMEs (INSME), and the Italian National
Agency for Inward Investment Promotion (SviluppoItalia).
In
Bologna, the delegation met with Promobologna which
is the agency designated for the promotion of
investment in the Province of Bologna. The
delegation then met Unindustria which is the
confederation of enterprises for the province of
Bologna. After this very interesting meeting they
met with ASTER which is a Science and Technology
Enterprise financed by five universities and the
Region Emilia Romagna. The last morning meeting was
with ArtigianCredit which is a regional institution
that guarantees credits to its associates, grouped
in small cooperatives in various locations in the
Region. In the afternoon, the delegation had a
meeting and a site visit at Interporto Bologna which
is one of the largest and most innovative inland
ports in Europe. Finally, in Turin, the delegation
established contacts with the International Training
Centre of ILO (ITCILO), the Piedmont Investment
Agency, Codex, the Union of Chambers of Commerce,
Torino Wireless, and the I3P Incubator.
By exchanging experiences and best practice during
this mission, GAFI got first hand information about
instruments used by Italian institutions to support
SMEs. In particular this information included:
¨
Support to the start up of new businesses:
Incubators and Clusters;
¨
Access to finance for SMEs;
¨
Entrepreneurship;
¨
Inward investment promotion;
¨
Public Private Partnership (PPP);
¨
Capacity-building and training.
As a concrete result of this visit to Italy, with
the support of IPU Cairo and ITPO Rome, GAFI is
evaluating with many of its new contacts how to
formalize a collaboration that will help improve
GAFI’s tools to support local and/or foreign
private companies/investors in Egypt.
