Mutual Cooperation with the State of Thailand
03/10/2017
Cairo: October 3rd, 2017
In order to review the unique experience of The United Bank in financing the SME sector and nominated by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SME), a high-level delegation from the State of Thailand recently visited The United Bank to review mutual cooperation and exchange of experiences between the two countries.
The team of The United Bank headed by Ashraf El-Kady - Chairman received the Thailand delegation. The delegation consists of a group of diplomats headed by Chainarong Keratiyutwong - the Ambassador of Thailand in Egypt, many economists, trade and professors of Thailand universities specialists in the development of small and medium enterprises sector, in addition to selection representatives of the SME.
In his speech, Ashraf El-Kady expressed his deep welcome to the Thailand delegation and his gratitude to the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority of nominating The United Bank as one of the specialized banks in providing financing for this promising sector.
He pointed out that the selection of The United Bank was the result of the efforts of the professional team to provide a package of financing and technical services excellence for the sector of small and medium enterprises.
Egypt is a land of promising opportunities
El Kady said during his meeting with the Thailand delegation that Egypt is the land of promising opportunities, as well as an outlet for Thai exports to Africa, Europe, North Asia and Latin America.
He pointed out to the importance of fruitful cooperation and exchange of experiences and integration between the two countries, especially that Thailand is one of the important international models in the field of maximizing the role of small and medium enterprises in the economy. Ashraf El-Kady also expected that the trade relations between the two countries will witness a great start during the coming period in view of the great interest that Thailand attaches to Egypt and invest in it.
Ashraf El-Kady said that the Egyptian state has developed an ambitious economic and legislative reform program that reflects the seriousness of attracting new investments. As well as major national projects and infrastructure aimed at achieving sustainable development, including: the development of the Suez Canal axis as well as the new administrative capital, new industrial zones, road network and infrastructure. This is in addition to the current measures to reduce the budget deficit and treat inflation.
Thailand's experiences in the field of small and medium enterprises
On the other side, the Thailand delegation said that his country seeks to strengthen trade and technical relations with Egypt to achieve greater economic integration especially in the field of small and medium enterprises.
They added that Thailand has a lot of theoretical and practical experience in the development and support of small and medium enterprises, enabling them to achieve a distinguished position in the world.
In Thailand, the country has dealt with this sector in accordance with a well-thought-out and specialized approach based on the development of opportunities according to a state-specific program. The banking sector has contributed to supporting this financing role, especially since the nature of the banks there depends on specialized banking services such as agricultural and industrial banks.
The Thailand side highlighted that the SME sector contributed to a huge increase in Thai exports, as well as the development of the local industry base, the elimination of unemployment and the improvement of the level of Thai citizens in general.
Transformational Training:
Ashraf El-Kady pointed to the importance of using international experiences and expertise. The State of Thailand is at the head of these countries in the process of training transformational for all categories of society to qualified and trained workers and accredited by international certificate specialized in various fields, both technical, marketing, service and accounting…etc.
He said "In Egypt, we have a relatively low-cost production capacity compared to external labor, but this is good preparation and sound awareness of the shift from consumption to production”.
Empower youth and women
Ashraf El-Kady pointed out that the next phase is the stage of empowering youth and women to lead the future and qualify the new generation to lead the development wheel in Egypt. Under the guidance of the President of the Republic, the State has taken into account the youth and women component and their effective role. But it is necessary to create an integrated system to sponsor and empower these two categories and qualify them technically, socially and politically to lead the next stage.
The United Bank's experience in supporting small and medium enterprises
As for the experience of The United Bank in financing small and medium enterprises, Ashraf El-Kady said that the bank was able to achieve a growth in the volume of funds allocated to the sector of small and medium enterprises amounted to 15% of the total credit portfolio of the bank in accordance with the initiative of The Central Bank of Egypt. We are aiming to reach 20% by the end of 2018.
Three main advantages of The United Bank
About the advantages that helped The United Bank to achieve this achievement in the field of small and medium-sized businesses, Nevine Kashmirt - Deputy Managing Director of The United Bank and one of the most important leaders of women in the banking sector says:
The first advantage: the spread of bank branches at the level of the Republic.
The second advantage: The location of the branches in strategic areas based on industrial, service and commercial economy has contributed significantly to increasing the base of beneficiaries of the financing allocated to the SME sector in accordance with the initiative of the Central Bank of Egypt, where the numbers of branches of the bank are 52 branches.
The third advantage: As well as human energy and its relevance to such an effective role.
The role of The United Bank is not only to grant financing in accordance with the rules adopted by The Central Bank of Egypt, but also to provide specialized technical advice to ensure the customers the best ways to invest their money and the development and success of their projects.
The United Bank's efforts to develop small and medium enterprises financing sector
Nevine Keshmiry said that The United Bank has taken serious steps to achieve a significant growth in the size of its credit portfolio to finance the sector of small and medium enterprises. This is in line with the bank's adoption of a clear vision and an integrated program aimed at serving the sector in a professional manner and developing it with new thinking, with a focus on the industrial and service sectors and complementary industries.
She said the action plan was built on four main themes:
First theme: A careful study of the market and the nature of customers, especially the governorates of the Republic, as well as to identify their needs and prioritize them. The nature of the projects and its activities vary in the governorates of the Republic and therefore there must be a plan to provide all the services and meet all the needs of the customers of the bank and new customers.
Second theme: It is based on the processing of a selection of human cadres capable of managing the sector of SME and micro professionally.
Third theme: It is the application of IT systems that provide maximum security as well as time and accuracy of data to serve the customer.
Fourth theme: To qualify customers in how to deal and prepare data for obtaining credit in cooperation with the Institute of Banking and under the supervision of The Central Bank of Egypt 'how to be a bankable'.
Fifth theme: Financing partnership agreements with a number of donors
She said that the bank has signed a series of joint financing agreements with a number of donors including the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority which plays a major role in supporting and developing the role played by the sector in the national economy whether by granting funds or participating in the preparation of legislation, laws and procedures at the National level.
The United Bank grants these funds in accordance with the rules of grants and financing of The Central Bank, either through traditional or Shariaa-compliant financing methods, and is intended to support a wide range of youth and women in all governorates of the Republic.
Features of The United Bank service "Intilaaqah" to finance small and medium enterprises
Specialized work programs have been developed for the SME sector to serve a wide range of clients in their various activities, which included the division of activities to serve Intilaaqah to five specialized areas: "Supplier" - "Distributor" - "Project" - "Our Environment" - "Carrier".
Increasing the base of beneficiaries of financing opportunities contributes to the achievement of the system of financial inclusion
Nevine Kashmiry said that the bank is seeking to increase the number of beneficiaries of financing programs for the sector of small, medium and micro enterprises specialized to achieve the financial inclusion system, which depends on the inclusion of Egyptians in financial and banking services. In other words, every citizen in Egypt has a bank account whether he has a known income or has no income at all. This is done by banks, post offices, mobile networks, civil society organizations, cooperative societies or insurance companies.
She praised the serious steps taken by the Egyptian government and The Central Bank of Egypt towards building the national database to expand the financial coverage base such as the implementation of the Takaful and Dignity Project to include the beneficiaries of this support program. As well as the initiative of The Central Bank to finance the limited and middle-income, as well as the SME initiative and also the green net project. This is in addition to the initiative of financial inclusion led by the professionalism of The Central Bank of Egypt.
Problems of SMEs sector
Problems facing the SME sector, Nevine Kashmiry noted that the development of the SME sector has become the hope of Egypt and a real demand for solving many of our problems and economic crises.
She added that efforts exerted by The Central Bank of Egypt, the government agencies and the concerned authorities to put in place specific mechanisms at the administrative, economic and legal levels will help achieve the desired goal of the state, which is to raise the standard of citizens’ living.
But the national awareness and dissemination of the culture of self-employment among the youth is one of the main pillars for the development of this sector and maximize its performance in the national economy.
