A new joint-team involving Italian and Egyptian banks has already started making an impression on the business environment in the African country and Italian machine manufacturers serving the leather sector look certain to benefit.

The Banca Infrastrutture Innovazione e Sviluppo (BIIS) and the Bank of Alexandria have joined forces to set up a new Public & Infrastructure Finance Desk in Cairo. The new unit hopes to make available to Egyptian companies the Bank of Alexandria’s in-depth knowledge of the local market and BIIS’s experience of providing funding for major projects.

Securing the buy-in of Egypt’s major tanneries and funding to help them install new infrastructure and equipment at a tannery centre near Cairo has been the first project the new body has taken on.

The Egyptian government wants to set up a tanning hub in Robbikki, 50 kilometres from the capital, which it is calling Robbikki Leather City. It will be the first specially constructed industrial facility Egypt has ever had and it will be of a high enough quality, the authorities insist, to attract investment and technology from outside.

The funding the banks are making available, €50 million, will go specifically towards bringing in Italian tanning machinery for the Egyptian companies to use.

Share this story: