Egypt's exports hike 24.5% in 10 months

CAIRO - 14 December 2021: Egypt’s exports increased 24.5 percent during the first 10 months of 2021 on an annual basis, recording $25.9 billion, according to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Nevine Gamea.
 

Gamea attributed Tuesday the increase to the measures implemented to stimulate exports.

The minister added that the contribution of industrial production to the gross domestic product (GDP) increased to 17 percent during the fiscal year 2019/2020, compared to about 16 percent during the fiscal year 2018-2019.

During her participation in the opening session of the third edition of the Egypt Economic Summit, the Minister noted that there are a number of measures targeted to be implemented during the next phase to stimulate exports, including maintaining positive rates of Egyptian export growth in light of the negative effects of the outbreak of the Corona epidemic on the global economy and achieving a substantial increase in Egyptian exports as they are the most important sources of foreign exchange, and the locomotive of growth for industries with competitiveness in global markets As well as raising employment rates to absorb the additional energies as a result of stopping or slowing down some economic activities, especially the service sector.

The minister indicated that the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises Law was issued and its executive regulations approved, which includes many unprecedented incentives and benefits for this type of project, which accounts for more than 70 percent of the structure of the Egyptian economy.

The ministry is also working to achieve a fundamental shift in local and foreign investments in various industries, as the ministry has issued several laws, including the industrial land allocation law, the industrial licensing law and its executive regulations, which will simplify the procedures for obtaining licenses for new industrial projects for nearly 80 percent of industries, which is one of the most important challenges facing the private sector, in addition to amending the executive regulations of the law on importers' register.

Regarding the most important measures implemented to stimulate exports during the period from January 2020 to July 2021, Gamea indicated that the Supreme Council for Export was reconstituted and the framework of plans and policies were defined to maximize exports and activate the role of the Export Development Fund, where the overdue export dues were paid by about LE 30 billion, in addition to approving the new program for export support as of the first of last July, as well as developing a network of trade partnerships with foreign markets by activating relations with trading partners and benefiting from regional integration and preferential trade agreements.

She added that the measures implemented to stimulate exports under the Export Burdens Refund Program include strengthening export infrastructure (exhibition support program), transport support (transport support program to Africa and air freight support programme), enhancing access to Africa, targeting new markets, developing Upper Egypt and border areas, and deepening the industry by applying the value-added standard and increasing the use of local inputs. The procedures also included expanding the base of products benefiting from the new program (which included the automobile industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the ceramic industry, the industries feeding electronic, electrical and household appliances, and the exports of the food industry production lines, agricultural machinery and some chemical industries). .