Egypt's 2017 auto exports register $69M in 7 months

CAIRO- 9 September 2017: Egypt’s auto exports have registered $69 million until July 2017, compared to $129 million in 2016, Minister of Trade and Industry Tareq Kabil said on Thursday.

Addressing the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum held on the sidelines of the China-Arab States Expo 2017, Qabil added that Egypt’s food exports during the first seven months in 2017 recorded $286 million, down from $525 million last year.

Egypt’s vision for the vehicle industry until the year 2022 includes the production of 500,000 cars per year, with its auto exports hitting 100,000 cars, the minister said.

The vision can provide up to 250,000 job opportunities, lure $5 billion investments and increase the vehicle exports to $3 billion a year, Qabil added.

On that score, Qabil stressed that Egypt is working on promoting its cooperation with several leading countries in the auto industry, topped by China in order to benefit from their experience in manufacturing vehicles.

Meanwhile, the minister added that the key future markets for Egypt’s food exports are the Netherlands, Malta, Turkey, the Gulf Cooperation Council states, Slovakia, France, Germany and the UK.

The forum was also attended by president of the China Machinery Industry Federation Wang Ruixiang, head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Jiang Zengwei, Lebanese Economy Minister Raed Khoury as well as Sudanese Undersecretary of the Ministry of Investment Najm al Din Ibrahim.