The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) – a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB) – and the government of Egypt have signed a letter of intent for supporting the country's export financing sector. The letter was signed by Dr. Sahar Nasr, Minister of International Cooperation and Eng. Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO ITFC, on the sidelines of the 2016 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group in Washington. The Letter of Intent offers programs to support the Egyptian exports, which includes export programs under its Arab Africa Trade Bridge initiative (AATB), which is meant to strengthen trade between Arabic and African countries. In addition, both parties agreed to arrange consultative meetings to discuss future development programs in addition to the mutual support both parties need for the support of the social welfare of the country. Eng. Sonbol said "improving trade in general and intra-OIC trade in particular is one of the main goals for ITFC, therefore, by signing this letter, we get closer to accomplishing what ITFC was created for." The signing emanates from the well-established cooperation with Egypt, whereby ITFC has signed several framework agreements represented by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), with a total of $6.2 billion that was used to import oil and petroleum products.
