Eng. Hassan Al Khatib, Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, participated in the proceedings of the "Future of Egypt's Engineering Industry Exports" Conference organized by the Engineering Export Council. He reviewed the challenges facing the engineering industries sector, the opportunities available for increasing exports, and plans of actions for achieving the exporting objectives, in the presence of Eng. Essam El Naggar, Chairman of the General Organization for Export and Import Control, and leaders of the engineering industrial sector, in addition to a number of experts and specialists in the field of engineering industries, in addition to representatives of relevant government companies and institutions.
The Minister said that the engineering industries sector represents one of the most important productive and export sectors in the national economy, which meets the needs of the local market and exports to regional and global markets, noting that exports of engineering and electronic goods amounted to about 5 billion and 768 million dollars in 2024, achieving an increase of 25%.
Al Khatib pointed out the importance of enhancing cooperation between the government and the private sector to increase the rates of Egyptian exports to foreign markets and open more new export markets, indicating the importance of how the engineering industries sector gets the benefit from the Free and Preferential Trade Agreements concluded between Egypt and a large number of countries and regional and global economic blocs, which allow free access for Egyptian products to a large number of foreign markets.
The Minister reviewed the features of the Ministry's vision and strategy aimed at increasing investments and enhancing foreign trade rates, noting that the Ministry's strategy aims to create a more competitive and attractive investment climate for local and foreign investments, based on transparency and clarity, providing a supportive institutional and legislative environment, improving the business environment, simplifying procedures, and alleviating obstacles facing investors, while enhancing the role of the private sector as a major partner in development.
The Minister added that the Ministry seeks to encourage Egyptian exports and increase their competitiveness globally through improving trade policies, adopting effective mechanisms to develop the foreign trade, and encouraging national industries with added value, noting that the volume of Egyptian exports in 2024 exceeded $40.8 billion with an increase rate 14%.
The Minister demonstrated that the Ministry's vision includes clear and transparent policies that stimulate investment, and reduce non-tax and procedural financial burdens on the investor, with the necessity of clarifying the investor's rights and obligations towards the state during the investment period. It also includes granting the private sector the main pivotal role in driving the economy, while the state plays the role of the supervisor, regulator and judge to ensure a fair investment environment.
Al Khatib explained that the ministry’s vision also includes globally open trade policies that contribute to increasing exports and reducing the trade deficit through encouraging national investments in the field of production and export and providing the necessary services to exporters.
The Minister referred that the Ministry's vision also includes protecting the Egyptian economy from harmful practices in international trade, with the aim of preserving the Egyptian product in the domestic and global markets, adding up that Egypt has a group of distinguished trade agreements that enhance the competitiveness of Egyptian exports in foreign markets.
Al Khatib designated that the government has set clear and stimulating policies for investment and trade to reduce non-tax and procedural financial burdens on investors, as a plan has been developed to implement these policies in two phases. The first phase (current) includes addressing the most prominent financial deductions applied to companies on a periodical basis, whereas the profits percentage of Rehabilitation and Training Fund has been reduced from 1% to 0.25% of the minimum insurance wage, along with addressing the retroactive effect in coordination with the Ministry of Labor, and amending the solidarity contribution tax to be calculated on profits instead of revenues, and coordination is in progress with all authorities concerned in this regard, noting that the second phase will focus on analyzing each sector separately in coordination with all entities.
Al Khatib pointed out that an ambitious plan has been developed to gradually reduce customs release time to two days by 2025. The plan is based on two phases: the first phase aims to reduce the release period to (4) days, which enhances the efficiency of customs processes. The second phase aims to reach only two days, which enhances commercial competitiveness and significantly reduces logistical costs, which positively reflects on the business environment and saves huge costs on the economy, as these efforts contribute to saving $284 million.
The Minister mentioned that these policies and reforms will contribute to making Egypt's Trade Policy open to the world, as well as increasing Egyptian exports to foreign markets, in addition to providing an attractive environment for local industry and supporting its competitiveness, indicating that these policies and reforms will also contribute to placing Egypt in an advanced stage in World Trade Indicators to be among the 50 largest countries in the world during the coming period, and then moving to the top 20 by 2030 with a qualitative leap in exports.
Al Khatib pointed out that the state is working to diversify export markets, in the framework of strategy to expand Egyptian markets in Africa, Europe, Asia and North America to reach $145 billion in annual exports. The government is also working to strengthen global trade relations, and focus on Egypt's efforts to promote the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), as well as with the European Union and other global partners, noting that the state is working to improve the logistical infrastructure to link Egypt to global markets, and benefit from Egypt's strategic location as a gateway to Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
The Minister mentioned that work is underway to launch a company to guarantee export risks to the markets of the African continent, indicating that the assets of the "Josoor" company will be exploited to establish logistics centers in major African cities and capitals, in order to serve the export sector.
Al Khatib demonstrated that the government is moving forward in implementing soft financing initiatives for various productive sectors in a way that contributes to supporting the private sector, referring that work is in progress to restructure the Export Rebate Program, as the program’s current size reaches 23 billion pounds.
For his part, Eng. Sherif Al Sayed, Chairman of the Engineering Export Council, said that the conference provides a comprehensive analysis of the performance of Egyptian engineering products exports, and identifies point of strength during the recent period in order to strengthen them and achieve targets of no less than 20% annually, after the exports of engineering sector significantly increased over the past three years.
Al-Sayed explained that the conference also aims to shed the light on the promising markets for Egyptian engineering products, how to benefit from International Trade Agreements to boost exports, discuss the role of the government and government support, providing the necessary incentives for exporters in the engineering sector, and the impact of these incentive programs on engineering exports, in addition to evaluating weaknesses and working on them in order to contribute to increasing exports.
The Chairman of the Engineering Export Council stressed the importance of increasing engineering exports to enhance the economic growth and provide new job opportunities, indicating that the Council’s plans aim to improve the quality of exported products in order to continue the increase currently being achieved, with the presence of Egyptian production of engineering industries of global quality, and it is accepted in major markets such as Europe, Asia and America.