Five-pillar plan to boost Egypt industry sector: Minister
Minister El-Wazir made his statements during a visit on Saturday to the Industrial Development Authority (IDA).
The pillars include optimizing imports to limit only to the local market's needs and locally produce alternative high-quality products; maximizing exports and utilizing raw materials and reputable Egyptian industries to increase the supply of hard currency and support the Egyptian economy, while enhancing the quality of the products to compete in external markets; eradicating unemployment through job creation; attending to human power and technical workforce to enable them to improve their level and skills which will positively affect the quality of industry and exports to attract foreign currency; instant verification for the re-operation of struggling factories and enabling them to extend their activity according to fast and accurate procedures, according to El-Wazir.
IDA’s working days to be 6 instead of 5 days weekly
During the visit, the minister instructed the authority to extend the working days to six instead of five days a week to expand the time slots available for welcoming investors and producers.
“This will also help ease the process for them, speed up the procedures related to factories' licenses, and solve industry-related problems,” added the minister.
El-Wazir also emphasized the importance of leveraging the IDA due to its important role in executing policies set by the industry ministry to encourage and stimulate investment in the industrial sector.
He also highlighted the importance of setting and executing land development policies for industrial purposes and making them available for investors, simplifying the procedures needed to acquire private and industrial licenses.
Egypt made an inclusive overhaul to its cabinet last week, which witnessed the merger of the Ministry of Industry with the Ministry of Transport for the first time in Egypt's history, with El-Wazir being appointed as the first minister of industry and transport.
Moreover, El-Wazir emphasized the importance of the private sector, stating that advancing the private sector will be a top priority in the new ministry
Egypt’s industrial sector was among the sectors most affected by the repercussions of the global and regional tensions, including the severe shortage of the US dollar in the local market for over two years.
Additionally, the current high interest rates have increased operating costs and raised the prices of end products.
Efforts to overcome this crisis included inking deals for foreign direct investments (FDIs) to provide US dollar liquidity in the market such as the Ras El-Hekma deal in the North Coast.
Egypt is also committed to increasing the private sector’s share of economic activity to 50 percent according to its $8 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).