SME Investment Opportunities and Job Creation at the Canal Zone Project

Technical Assistance, Investment Opportunities Assessment & Financial and Business Strategy Plan

Description

As for background information on Egypt’s Social Fund for Development (SFD):

The Social Fund for Development (SFD) was established in 1991 to finance projects for the development of small enterprises, human resources, and the country’s regions, with the main objectives of reducing poverty and alleviating the negative impacts of the economic structural reform through the creation of job opportunities and community development.[…]

The objective of this project is to meet financial needs of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and to promote job creation in Upper Egypt and the Suez Canal & Sinai Peninsula by providing soft loans on concessionary terms by way of two financial intermediaries under the Small Enterprise Development Organization (SEDO) of SFD, established by the Government of Egypt, thereby encouraging the reduction of poverty and socio-economic inequalities of the target governorates.

The “SME Investment Opportunities and job creation at the Canal Zone” project is an initiative implemented for the Small Enterprise Development Organization Small Enterprises Development Organization (SEDO) of SFD and funded by The Japan International Cooperation Agency JICA. The objective of the project is to provide technical assistance to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME) to:

  • Encourage entrepreneurship development and assist development of A sector in the Canal Zone;
  • Reinforce SEDO capacity building to support SME growth.

Services

NSCE was commissioned to carry out an investment opportunities assessment and to identify the most promising industrial fields and assess their financial and technical needs. In order to identify industrial fields with promising investment opportunities for SMEs, analyze their needs, and target effective financial and assistance services, the following objectives had to be achieved:

  • Define the methodology for identifying investment opportunities in SMEs sector at Canal Zone (Port Said, Ismailia, and Suez)
  • To identify promising industrial fields (selecting at least five sub-sectors in each governorate and assessing their financial and technical needs)
  • To provide advice to SEDO financial and business strategy plan in the Canal Zone.
  • To identify integration opportunities between the canal zone cities (Port Said, Ismailia and Suez)
  • Coordination and cooperation prospects between mega projects or large business in Canal Zone and SME
  • To assess export potential for SMEs