Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges
The conference was held under the auspices of the Federation of Egyptian Industries and the Federation of Egyptian Banks, with the presence of the Minister of Planning, government participation and representatives of the financial industry. EGX participation focused on clarifying the difference between achieving financial inclusion and cashless economy. The first involves the expansion of the customer base through different financial services and tools.
Moving to a formal economy that finances the state treasury and impacts of businesses development.
Also, EGX participated in the third Annual Middle East Investment Summit in April 2018. The event was held with the presence of the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, Chairman of Misr for Central Clearing, Depository & Registry (MCDR) and the Secretary General of the Arab Federation of Exchanges (AFE). During the event’s opening session, EGX chairman affirmed that the Egyptian Exchange is a long term saving tool for investors protecting them from the price Fluctuations and inflation.
Moreover, EGX signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Cairo Investment and Real Estate Development (CIRA) to increase the students’ awareness of the financial market specially increasing the awareness of the stock exchange market.
This agreement should raise the awareness of about 8000 students at 9 faculties and students/teachers in 24 different schools.
EGX also participated in RiseUp Conference in December 2018 to support small and medium enterprises and to encourage youth to start small businesses, explaining benefits of listing in EGX once they have the requirements of listing fulfilled as another step of their businesses development.
Also, EGX continued its meetings with custodians to activate margin trading. Year 2018 witnessed significant activity with the custodians aspiring to increase trading through the margin trading mechanism. EGX aims to overcome all obstacles against margin trading and to adopt mechanisms to activate the banks’ role in trading securities through margin trading, in order to increase trading volumes and liquidity.
International Promotion
During 2018, EGX pursued intensive international promotion activities to enhance its regional and international position and to promote investing at EGX.
International Federations Activities
As a member of the African Securities Exchanges Association’s (ASEA) Board of Directors, EGX endeavored to establish the ASEA’s Sustainability working group. Chaired by EGX, the Sustainability Working Group (SWG) worked on affirming sustainability concepts and consolidating the association’s member's efforts in this field. Upon a survey and meetings with African markets representatives reviewing their sustainability activities, EGX published ASEA’s first road map for African capital markets sustainability, launched during the 22nd ASEA Annual Conference held in Nigeria in November 2018.
EGX also intensified its activity at the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) through heading the emerging markets working committee identifying the obstacles facing capital markets in attracting foreign investments and means of overcoming them. As a member of the WFE sustainability working group (Small & Medium Exchanges members of the WFE), EGX was exposed to different international exchanges expertise as part of its development regarding the Egyptian market. The WFE selected EGX, Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the Bermuda Stock Exchange to evaluate Dar Es Salaam Stock Exchange (Tanzania) to be a full member in the Federation.
FEAS 7th On-Site training was hosted by EGX this year with the participation of 20 technical officials representing 12 member exchanges of the federation. The training discussed developments in listing, disclosure, risk management, membership, surveillance and sustainability and witnessed fruitful discussions between participants.
Through EGX participation in the activities of the Global Dialogue of the United Nations on Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative in Geneva, EGX efforts in the field of sustainability was awarded. EGX received the Groundbreaker Award in this field as one of the first 5 exchanges participating in sustainability activities worldwide. The Egyptian Exchange was awarded for its support and cooperation in this field. In December 2018, EGX participated in a capacity-building workshop for African capital markets discussing means of managing local resources and how to benefit from them and work on increasing liquidity. The workshop was organized by the African bank in association with ASEA in Botswana.
Ending the year, EGX was re-elected for the fourth consecutive year to be a member in ASEA’s Board of Directors during the association’s annual meeting in November 2018.
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