UNIDO: New Equity Fund offers hope

Cairo-January 29, 2009 - UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) recently established the Equity Fund, dedicated to provide financial support for the many innovative agro solutions presented at its last conference. To ensure the fund functions both effectively and efficiently, UNIDO has appointed Delta Rasmala (a leading Egyptian company in the field of financial management) to manage it.

The last UNIDO conference held in Cairo, witnessed a selection of innovative agribusiness solutions from several countries. The aim being to help create a long term, sustainable improvement of quality of life, and the reduction of poverty in developing countries. Utilizing international resources and its own technical expertise, realistic progress can be achieved. The motivation behind the creation of the Equity Fund, was the recognized need to drastically reduce the impact of the worldwide food crisis. UNIDO has described it as being complicated and especially severe in developing countries.

Mr. Paul Makin, the UNIDO Representative in Egypt, publicly announced that "UNIDO is joining forces with Delta Rasmala, a leading Egyptian asset management firm, in an innovative effort to address the disadvantaged regions in Upper Egypt and other areas of Egypt, in line with the Egyptian Government's plans to help prevent future food crises from occurring".

The UNIDO international conference on innovative agribusiness solutions helped to provide additional know-how for those in the farming industry through the 15 solutions it presented and shared. Once implemented, it's hoped there will be a noticeable improvement in the quality and quantity of Egyptian agricultural produce. Consequently, it will have a considerable impact in helping solve the food crisis.

UNIDO assumes the role of defining the projects suitable for the Fund, as well as providing feasibility studies and business plans, in cooperation with its the Investment Promotion Unit (IPU), based within GAFI. Indeed the UNIDO IPU, from its establishment back on 1998, provides, as one of its main mandate, the support and technical assistance for Egyptian companies to access to finance (credit lines, soft loans, etc), by translating free of charge for the beneficiaries project ideas into bankable projects

According to Nermine El Tahri, Chairman and Partner of Delta Holding for Financial Investments, she sees the influence of the Equity fund on the agricultural life in Egypt, as offering great hope. "The establishment of the Food and Agribusiness Equity Fund will serve to raise the domestic enterprise capacities of local firms, in addition to establishing new enterprises and capacities to produce a broader range of products along the whole value chain—thus adding value to Egypt's agricultural wealth".

The main sponsor of the conference, Ms. Rawya Mansour, Chairperson of Ramsco, presented her vision of how to address the two major problems in an economically sustainable way. These of course are the rising cost of food and the environmental threat from the improper disposal of agricultural waste. As she said, "This project aims to leverage the interconnection of the two problems with a solution that will address both issues, all the while producing excellent returns to investors". She described a solution that converts agricultural waste into bio-fertilizers. This process has the potential to be much cheaper than chemical fertilizers and less harmful to both land and environment. She also talked about biogas, and how it can be used to generate electrical or mechanical power.

The creation of the Equity Fund provides a ray of hope in the ongoing fight to combat poverty and hunger. Once in operation, its impact is expected to be both highly visible and of great benefit to millions.

Source : Equity Bulls

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