Cairo, Egypt, May 7, 2012
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is helping train small and medium enterprises in Egypt on how to implement sound corporate governance standards to improve their performance, increase access to finance and foster sustained growth.
In cooperation with the Egyptian Junior Business Association, IFC is conducting an interactive workshop in Cairo, Egypt, one of the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa region. Workshop participants will discuss corporate governance principles and then determine how best to apply them in their own organizations. This is the first of a series of workshops targeted at small and medium enterprises in Egypt.
“We believe that small and medium enterprises are the engine of the Egyptian economy,” said Sherif El Sadek, Executive Director of the Egyptian Junior Business Association. “This cooperation with IFC will train small and medium enterprises, equipping them with practical tools to help them adopt sound corporate governance standards.”
Strong corporate governance helps protect minority shareholders, improves performance, ensures that companies use their resources more efficiently, and increases access to capital, all needed for sustained long-term economic growth.
"For smaller business to grow and attract investors, they need to adopt good corporate governance practices,” said Mouayed Makhlouf, IFC Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “This initiative is in line with our strategy to support small and medium enterprises, which we believe are the backbone of any economy,”
The workshop is supported by The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, SECO, which is the Swiss federal administration's agency for all issues relating to economic policy.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, providing advisory services to businesses and governments, and mobilizing capital in the international financial markets. In fiscal 2011, amid economic uncertainty across the globe, we helped our clients create jobs, strengthen environmental performance, and contribute to their local communities—all while driving our investments to an all-time high of nearly $19 billion. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
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