Italy, Egypt sign cooperation protocol for commodities exchange schemes

Cairo and Rome have signed Thursday a protocol on cooperation that aims to help Egypt to launch its own commodities exchange.

Egyptian Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafy has signed the protocol in the presence of Andrea Zanlari – Chairman of the Italian Online Commodities Exchange (BMTI) – and the Italian Ambassador to Egypt Maurizio Massari.

The planned Egyptian commodities exchange is set to be the first and biggest of its kind in the Middle East, and a hub of contracting, trading, receiving and distributing the grains for the Arab world.

Meanwhile, Minister Hanafy referred to an agreement with the Italian government to establish 10 horizontal silos for wheat storage in addition to two logistics zones in Egypt in the coming period.

Italy will support and cooperate in all the studies to be made to launch the Egyptian commodities exchange, said Alaa Ezz – General Secretary of the federations of Egyptian and European Chambers in an earlier statement to Amwal Al Ghad.

As part of the EuroMed Invest programme, the European Union will also give its support to the Egyptian authorities to establish the country’s long-awaited commodities exchange, Ezz added.