Egypt to launch new initiative to support agricultural, industrial production sectors

In a bid to increase capabilities of facing the repercussions of global crises, Egypt's Cabinet stated that the government will adopt a five-year initiative worth EGP150 billion to back the agricultural and industrial production sectors, especially by decreasing their loans’ interests.

The idea behind the initiative is to enhance local production by focusing on priority sectors, especially the industrial and agricultural sectors, the Cabinet said.

The ambitious initiative will come into operation after the cabinet’s approval this week.

According to Cabinet's media center, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said the initiative mainly includes reducing interest rates on loans provided to these sectors so that they can face the negative repercussions of the global crises.

Moreover, Maait noted that the total value of the proposed initiative is about EGP150 billion, of which about EGP140 billion will be allocated for financing working capital operations, and nearly EGP10 billion will be for financing the purchase of capital goods.

The amount of credit available to each company will be determined in light of the size of its business and the banking rules in this regard, Maait added.