Egypt calls for developing small, medium scale enterprises

Ambassador Mounir Zahran, personal representative of President Hosni Mubarak to the group of fifteen (G-15), on Monday stressed that the need for the group's governments, entrepreneurs and the private sector to develop an effective, comprehensive and coherent strategy to promote small and medium scale enterprises (SMES).

Addressing the inaugural session of the G15 expert meeting on cooperation among G-15 countries, Zahran said such a strategy will help SMEs to develop, improve, and contribute significantly to economic and social development in the group's member states.

He expressed his my appreciation to Hussein El Gammal, Secretary General of the Egyptian Social Fund for Development, for co-organizing and co-hosting such an important specialized gathering together with the Egyptian Foreign Minister.

'The social fund for development has been soundly and actively devoted to fostering, assisting and promoting SMEs in Egypt,' Zahran said.

The fund has been activly in participated in the efforts of cooperation among G-15 countries to promote on SMEs, since the tenth G-15 Summit in Cairo in June 2000, the fund has become the group's focal point of an ambitious project to promote and develop SMEs in G-15 member states.

The success of such a vital project is considered as an exemplary model for the overall enhancement of south-south cooperation in general and within the G-15 in particular.