Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued final approvals for 226 industrial projects inside and outside the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), compared to about 130 approvals in January 2016, minister Tarek Kabil said in a statement on Thursday.
The investment cost of these projects reached EGP 8 billion, and will provide around 6,856 job opportunities; this is compared to an investment cost of EGP 3 billion in the same period of the previous year, Kabil added.
Approvals involved nine different industrial sectors, with 71 for foodstuffs, 51 for engineering, 44 for chemicals, and 33 for textile, among others, the minister stated.
These are positive indicators that reflect the ministry’s strategy to reinforce industrial development in Egypt until 2020, he said.
He also mentioned that 86 investors got approvals to expand their industrial facilities with investments of EGP 4 billion during January 2017, compared to 60 investors in the year-ago period.
Kabil noted that Egypt aims to increase its industrial production growth to 8%, and raise the sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) to 21% from 17.7%, according to the statement.
Egypt’s trade deficit recorded about $49 billion last year, but the government is currently working on reducing it by 50% in 2017.
