ITC's workshop in Egypt shares survey findings, offers data tools

In an ongoing survey, the ITC is talking to businesses across the Agadir free trade area. A sneak peek at the early findings point to specific steps recommended by businesses themselves to improve cooperation, ease restrictions, and grow trade among Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. Countries of the Agadir agreement have excellent trade potential if they cooperate more, ITC said in a media release.

Throughout the day, 30 participants from the four countries including the donors Switzerland and Sweden will look at the challenges and opportunities, with recommendations on how to develop a joint approach to promote North Africa as a supplier of clothing and textiles.

ITC is also offering training on how to use its powerful Market Analysis Tools, which can help small businesses discover what products are most likely to sell well. Among these tools, the newly upgraded version of the Euromed Trade Helpdesk pulls data from 10 Mediterranean countries – giving small businesses free access to the kind of data normally available only to large corporates.

The workshop takes place under ITC’s Global Textile and Clothing Programme in the Middle East and North Africa (GTEX/MENATEX). The programme is bringing to Cairo a group of ministry representatives and business support institutions from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia.

The GTEX and its related work in MENATEX supports small and medium-sized enterprises and business support organisations working in the textile and clothing industry in developing countries to increase their export competitiveness. The GTEX/MENATEX programme is funded by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) of the Swiss Confederation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), focusing on six priority countries (Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Tunisia).

The workshop is taking place today, November 21, from 09.30-17:00 (GMT+2).

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)