Egypt PM endorses SFD's biggest-ever budget for 2012

Prime Minister Hisham Qandil endorsed Thursday the biggest budget in the history of the Social Fund for Development (SFD) for 2012. Under the approved budget, the SFD's volume for financing projects hit 2.2 billion pounds, including 1.5 billion pounds for small enterprises and 628 million pounds for micro projects. This came during a meeting of the new board of directors of the SFD, which groups ministers of finance, planning, international cooperation, industry, foreign trade and local development along with representatives from the private sector, the Central Bank of Egypt, the Federation of Industries, operating experts and the SFD's secretary general. The board also approved to take part in setting up a company to manage industrial hubs to promote the production of petrochemicals and encourage related small industries.