10/02/1999
Al-Akhbar Newspaper 1999/FEBRUARY /10
The EU has agreed to grant a large loan to modernize the Egyptian industry according to a threefold program. One of the main problems of the Egyptian industry, according to different interviewees, is its lack of equipment to process the raw materials Egypt is actually full with. This adds to the lack of trained and specialized labor and a tradition of focusing on the local market without going international. (Available in Arabic – German in PDF )
Egyptian industrialists do not find in Egypt the kind of machinery they need to process the raw materials this country is actually full with. Yet, according to Ambassador Gamal Bayoumi, this problem will soon be over. The EU has agreed to grant a large loan to modernize the Egyptian industry according to a threefold program. This program aims to make the Egyptian industry export-oriented, stimulate integrated industrial groups to work efficiently, and encourage every single institution to provide the facilitations these industries need to improve their performance. According to Dr. Nader Riad, the main impediment to industrial development is technological backwardness in terms of production and marketing. He believes businessmen should go international and miss no chance to take over a foreign company, if they can. At present, though, the Egyptian industry doesn’t have enough specialized workers. In addition, manufactures importing from abroad also have to pay many taxes and customs fees, which makes the entire production process more expensive.