Egypt targets 8% industrial growth this year

CAIRO – 8 January 2018: Egypt aspires to become among the 30 strongest economies worldwide by 2030, and this can be done through following a competitive strategy, Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Tarek Kabil said Monday.

In a speech he delivered during the inauguration of a number of projects in the 10th of Ramadan City, Kabil noted that the government targets 8 percent growth in the industrial sector this year, to reach 21 percent by 2020.

Egypt is adopting a 2020 industrial development strategy, which targets increasing the contribution of the sector in the gross domestic product (GDP) from 17 percent to 21 percent.

For that aim, Kabil launched in October the industrial investment map, which includes details about available opportunities in the industrial sector, aiming to reduce imports eventually; the map will be regularly updated with the latest developments in the sector.

The map included 4,136 opportunities in eight sectors. Around 1,260 opportunities are in the engineering industries, 860 in the chemical industries, 640 in the food industries, 600 in the textile sector, 395 in the mining sector, 180 in the pharmaceuticals sector, 122 in the metal industries and 56 in the leather industries.

The volume of industrial production hiked 11.7 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2017, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in a December report.

The investment’s growth rate in the industrial sector hiked up by 30 percent in 2017, according to the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI).