Saudi Fund for Development signs SME financing agreements in Egypt

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Updated 02 January 2022
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Saudi Fund for Development signs SME financing agreements in Egypt

The Saudi Fund for Development, known as SFD, signed multiple financing agreements in Egypt with the Industrial Development Bank, Banque du Caire and Enmaa Finance Company.

The total value of the agreements is 300 million Egyptian pounds ($19 million), intended to finance small, medium and micro enterprises in the Upper Egypt region.

Following meetings in Cairo, the financing is expected to contribute to lowering the unemployment rate, increase the rates of development in the region. 

It will also target clean energy, as well as the medical, services and industrial sectors.

The development of joint economic relations between Egypt and other Arab countries aligns with the ministry’s overall strategic aim at consolidating economic relations in various fields, the minister of international cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat, said.

Al-Mashat also praised the strategic Egyptian-Saudi relations, reflected by the program of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, intended to enhance the state’s efforts to develop the Sinai Peninsula.

So far, the total funding provided by the Saudi Arabia Grant Management Committee to Egypt is 1.5 billion Egyptian pounds.

This money has helped to finance 2,550 projects in 27 governorates, generating around 13,000 jobs in the development sectors.


India seals $3bn LNG agreement with UAE

Updated 19 January 2026
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India seals $3bn LNG agreement with UAE

  • Leaders hold talks to strengthen trade, defense ties

NEW DELHI, DUBAI: India signed a $3 billion deal on Monday to buy liquefied natural gas from the UAE, making it the Gulf country’s top customer, as the leaders of both countries held talks to strengthen trade and defense ties.

The agreement was signed during a very brief two-hour visit to ‌India by UAE ‌President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan for talks with Indian ‌Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

They pledged to double bilateral trade to $200 billion in six years and form a strategic defense partnership.

Abu Dhabi state firm ADNOC Gas will supply 0.5 million tonnes of LNG a year to India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp. for 10 years, the companies said.

ADNOC Gas said the agreement brings the total value of its contracts with India to over $20 billion.

“India is now the UAE’s largest customer and a ‌very important part of ADNOC Gas’ LNG strategy,” ‍the company said.

The UAE is ‍India’s third largest trading partner and Sheikh Mohammed was accompanied ‍by a government delegation that included his defense and foreign ministers. The two sides signed a letter of intent to work toward forming a strategic defense partnership, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters.

Misri, however, said that the signing of the letter of intent with the UAE does not mean that India will get involved in regional conflicts.

“Our involvement on the defense and security front with a country from the region does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that we will get involved in ‌particular ways in the conflicts of the region,” he said.