China and Egypt have broad space for cooperation in the field of financial science and technology.

China and Egypt have broad space for cooperation in the field of financial science and technology.

Source: Global Network/Reporter: Tian Gang

The 16th Global Annual Meeting (F20 Summit) of the International Financial Forum (IFF) was held in Guangzhou from November 22 to 24. The theme of this annual meeting is "Global Stability: New Changes, New Development". The annual meeting has more than 30 formal discussions, including plenary meetings and special meetings. Topics covered new globalization and global governance, changes in the global trade order and monetary payment systems, big data, future monetary forms and financial regulation, the Silk Road International Alliance Conference, the Fintech Summit, the Green Development Summit, and national and regional dialogues.

At the meeting, Elnaggar Yasser, director of IFF, former executive vice minister of the Egyptian Ministry of investment, former executive vice minister of the Egyptian Ministry of planning and CEO of ENInvestment consulting company, also attended the meeting and participated in the discussion and speech at the forum "international financial summit: application of financial technology" jointly sponsored by the Paulson foundation and the international financial forum. After the meeting, Mr. Yasser Elnaggar also accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from the World Wide Web on the cooperation between China and Egypt in the field of financial technology.

Mr. Yasser Elnaggar believes that Egypt's financial technology and digital finance industry has a lot of room for development. At present, the coverage of Egypt's banking system is very limited. Egypt has a population of 0.1 billion, of which only 20% can use banking services. The remaining 80 million million people are not covered by the banking system and cannot use banking and other financial services. There is no transfer channel between them, no way to conduct financial transactions with enterprises, and there are many payment obstacles in receiving government services.

Mr. Yasser Elnaggar mentioned that the current Egyptian government has come up with corresponding policies and measures to vigorously develop various services in the field of digital banking, but there is still a long way to go before the establishment of a digital financial ecosystem. It also contains very good investment opportunities and development prospects.

Mr. Yasser Elnaggar also provided a data: in the past four years, venture capital (VC) has been very interested in the financial technology industry, and venture capital has invested a total of $0.25 billion in start-ups in the financial technology field. In the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Gulf Arab States Cooperation Council, gulf cooperation council-gcc, established in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in May 1981), there are a lot of financial technology companies. At present, about 16% of financial technology start-ups come from Egypt and 47% of financial technology start-ups come from UAE.

As for the financial cooperation between China and Egypt, Mr. Yasser Elnaggar also believes that there are many opportunities in the development of financial science and technology, including two kinds of cooperation possibilities. The first kind of cooperation is at the regulatory level. Mr. Yasser Elnaggar pointed out that the Central Bank of China has issued relevant regulations and policies for the supervision of the financial technology field, and the Central Bank of Egypt is still a blank in this regard. China can provide Egypt with the current supervision. Practical experience. The second type of cooperation is in terms of applications. China has representative digital payment platforms such as Alipay and WeChat Pay. Mobile payment is also a financial technology application that Egypt needs. At the same time, the cooperation between China and Egypt is not limited to mobile payment, but can also be extended to other types of financial business, such as wealth management, lending and so on. In addition, Mr. Yasser Elnaggar believes that there are many options for Chinese companies to cooperate with Egypt, such as going directly to Egypt to carry out related business, or investing in Egyptian companies to carry out related business.