Arab Republic of Egypt Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade General Organization for Export and Import Control

In spite of all the unprecedented economic challenges that the world has passed through during the past two years, particularly in 2024, Egyptian non-petroleum exports succeeded in beating a new record of $40.8 billion, a number that has never been reached before. 

The Egyptian exports will continue for a long time of work during the coming years to reach the government’s target of $145 billion by 2030, but what has been achieved was not easy in light of the major challenges that confront the global economy including the Egyptian economy. 

Behind such achieved target, employees who have been working continuously to enhance the presence of Egyptian exports in the international markets, and the General Organization for Export and Import Control (GOEIC) is in the forefront of the entire bodies that played a major role in this achievement. Whereas Engineer Essam El Naggar, Chairman of the GOEIC, confirmed that a large number of plans have been executed to reach $40.8 billion, and he also stressed that the future will be better in light of full support submitted by Egypt to representatives of the Private Sector and those responsible for the movement of Egyptian exports and their penetration the foreign markets. 

In his interview with Al-Akhbar, Eng. Essam El Naggar confirmed that the Ministry of Investment implements several strategies to support exports and increase their rates, in addition to solving all the problems that face exporters until beating the largest goal which is $145 billion by 2030 and here is the text of the interview.

How the exports have achieved $40.8 billion of exports last year? What are the most important indications? 

 “This number was not achieved by only individual efforts, but as a result of joint work among various parties. When I was present at the Akhbar El Yom Economic Conference 2023, I talked about the number achieved in that year, which was $35.7 billion, is considered an achievement for the Federation of Egyptian Industries, exporters, and businessmen, as they reached this number under major economic challenges. Therefore, achieving $40.8 billion in 2024 is considered a greater achievement for businessmen, Federation of Industries, and the Egyptian government.

The General Organization for Export and Import Control provides accredited laboratories and trains exporters on new agreements and mechanisms for dealing with them. It holds continuous meetings with Export Councils and Federation of Industries to identify their problems in order to quickly solve them. The GOEIC also aimed, during the past period, to reduce customs release time, as there is a trend to reduce customs release time to only two days by the end of 2025. All these procedures reduce the cost to the exporter, which is the basis for increasing exports.

Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality (EOS) undertakes issuing specifications that comply with the International Standards, consequently increasing the competitiveness of the Egyptian product after raising its quality. As for the commercial representation, it takes measures to increase investments within the country. The Exhibitions Authority also holds several internal and external exhibitions, and the Export Councils have played an integrated role and this means there is an integrated system helped in reaching this number.

What is the target for the current year 2025?

$40 billion is only commodity exports, as there are petroleum exports, exports related to the communications sector, and exports related to cinema and films. Therefore, this number is increasable during the current year; and according to the government directives, it is planned by the end of 2030 to reach $145 billion.

Is achieving this number possible under the current economic challenges?

Of course yes, especially since the state moves towards reducing the burdens on the exporting community, as there is no exporter who does not import certain requirements for his product, and therefore we have begun implementing a number of steps to reduce the cost, including working (7) days a week so that he can determine an appropriate price for his product globally and thus increasing rates of the international competition, in addition to coordinating with banks to receive customers during most of the hours and other procedures that would facilitate the export process and remove all obstacles.

But some people think that reaching $145 billion in 5 years is difficult?

This is not true, as the Egyptian state works sturdily and strenuously and in cooperation with its various agencies to enhance exports, by removing all problems and overcoming all challenges to reach $145 billion of exports. There is also full cooperation between the state and the private sector, which is considered the driver of real development in any country, and is also capable of achieving these numbers. We will play our role in providing all necessary means of support to achieve this dream, as the Economic Group is currently exerting very great efforts to attract new foreign investments to the Egyptian market.

How did the GOEIC succeed in achieving its goals to help increase the volume of Egyptian exports?

In the GOEIC, we have reached 310 laboratories and 4,000 internationally accredited tests, a number that does not exist in any other Egyptian entity. Indeed, Egypt today has the most modern laboratory in the entire region, which is the biodegradation laboratory for products and it is ready to be inaugurated and will cause a major boom in Egyptian exports, as exporters used to send products abroad for analysis, which increases the cost. Hence, it can be said that providing laboratories and tests with internationally accredited technology contributes to saving costs for the exporter and manufacturer. We also make significant reductions in products analysis. The GOEIC has also been accredited in the Saudi “Saber” system, as well as in some African countries that require “ISO 17020 certification”. Accordingly, the GOEIC helps in bringing hard currency into the country, as the first marble shipment from Egypt to Brazil was examined, which was a shipment of marble.

How does the development of the GOEIC’s laboratories help support the export system?

We started the journey of developing the GOEIC’s laboratories since 2018, as there were presidential directives to develop the laboratories located at ports. During the past period, textile laboratories were also developed to support the state’s trend towards regaining leadership in this sector. Currently, certain global brands send us some of their products for testing in the laboratories here. We also have developed a laboratory for testing firefighting capabilities and firefighting devices, as there are more than 56 tests for 22 types, which is the first of its kind in Egypt. Through this laboratory, fire powder is tested according to the highest international standards and in cooperation with a German consultant. It will be opened at the end of next month after completing the necessary tests, and it will be internationally approved by the end of the year, which helps factories operating in this sector to export abroad. 

We also cooperated with the Engineering Export Council to solve the Gulf Quality Mark problem, and today we are accredited in the tests for all electrical appliances, and the same in the carbon unit that was accredited by the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that will be launched in 2026, and today we have also become accredited in this matter, as well as in the exports of biodegradable plastic.

Is there a specific sector that has been given special attention to boost its exports?

Over the past period, cooperation with the Export Council for Printing and Packaging has been intensified, as its products are used in all export industries such as food and engineering industries and others. Attention was paid to the Export Council to comply with global requirements. We also paid attention to risk management for industrial goods to prevent time delays in goods, which qualifies us to establish an integrated system for risk management, to be linked to factories in the second phase, while the third phase will be for tracking and monitoring the domestic market.

What is the importance of risk management for the export or import sector?

This system also helps reduce the cost for the importer, and it can be used to monitor the transgressors, because someone who examines one shipment is different from someone who examines ten import shipments, as the GOEIC has owned the “data warehouse” since 2005, which is a treasure through which it is possible to determine the data of the importer, the commodity, the type, the port from which the goods came out, and the company that imported or exported, and we are currently working with the Ministry of Communications to unify the database for these matters.

The GOEIC also received a grant from the Korean government to develop a system of conformity assessment procedures for inspection based on the risk management system in controlling imports of industrial and engineering goods within the framework of facilitating trade at ports, as it is planned that the project will be implemented in three phases as of the beginning of 2025 until the end of 2029 at a total cost estimated at 10 million US dollars, in light of the approval issued by the Korean government last August.

Returning to the customs release file, how will its time be reduced to only two days?

The Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade assigned us (3) months ago to prepare a comprehensive study on the reasons for delaying the customs release. Indeed, we actually have identified (12) steps that must be completed during the coming period to reduce the release time to only (6) days instead of (8) days, and it will gradually reach only two days by the end of the year. We also seek a shorter time than that. The beginning of these steps was working (7) days a week since December 6, until 6 pm, thus we doubled the working hours and we also coordinated with a number of banks to work as well. Then we prepare a weekly report on Friday to be submitted to the Minister of Investment about what has been done. The factories work with their full capacity, and we also reconsider reducing certain fees. Therefore, it can be said that 2025 will witness a shift in reducing customs release time, as the ultimate goal is to reduce the cost in a way that benefits the consumer in the end.

Within the framework of the assessment and monitoring plan followed by the GOEIC, the latest statistical programs were used through which the performance rate in all branches of the GOEIC can be monitored and measured in all stages of the customs release system.

What is distinctive about the Egyptian market that encourages investors to come and invest?

Reassurance, as the Minister of Investment confirmed that reviewing financial, monetary and foreign trade policies in such way that matches the economic conditions in the world today is the most important means of attracting new investments, whether local or foreign, as the investor needs clear long-term plans and policies to ensure continuity.

How do you see cooperation with Export Councils during the last period?

Export Councils are an advisory group to the Minister of Foreign Trade to help him increase Egyptian exports, and therefore it is the group responsible for increasing exports. Consequently, we cooperate together to identify problems and quickly solve them, and therefore there is continuous communication. We also established the Exporters Support Unit, which receives many complaints from them, whether with customs, agricultural quarantine, or the Federation of Industries, as they, especially the new ones, do not know who to go to solve their problems. Here, this unit receives complaints, whether on WhatsApp or email, in Arabic, English, and French, and then communicates with the concerned party to solve the problem as quickly as possible.

How do you see what the Authority has achieved during the past year 2024?

The year 2024 was full of important achievements, as the number of consignments displayed to the GOEIC reached about 97,399, while industrial import consignments reached 82,549, and 77,975 consignments were accepted and 4,574 were rejected, while non-industrial import consignments reached 14,850, 14,254 of them were accepted and 596 were rejected. The GOEIC's laboratories also examined 477,765 consignments, as the number of samples examined reached 173,733 industrial samples, and 304,032 food and chemical samples, including 36,484 contract samples. The GOEIC also issued 486,981 certificates of origin.

During the last year, 31,825 commercial registries were extracted, including new registrations, renewals, and additions, including 9,173 importers' registry, 11,258 exporters' registries, 1,421 commercial agents and foreign offices registries, 3,603 production requirements registries, 4,382 real estate brokerage registries, and 1,988 advertising and publicity registries, with the Environmental Validation and Verification Unit EVVU accredited by the Egyptian Accreditation Council EGAC, recognized by the European Accreditation Organization, and the unit is being registered with the Financial Regulatory Authority for the Voluntary Carbon Market.

What about the legislative amendments that aims to eliminate investment obstacles?

The Senate Economic Affairs Committee approved a draft law amending some provisions of Law No. 121 of 1982 regarding the importers’ registry. It is currently being presented to the Legislative Committee. The amendments aim to improve the investment climate and reduce financial and administrative burdens on companies, with a focus on strengthening the role of the private sector in the economy.

The most important features of the amendment are facilitating the procedures for re-registration and updating data in the importers’ registry, especially in the event of changing the legal form of companies, allowing the use of convertible foreign currencies in some procedures, enabling the heirs of the facility owner to continue the commercial activity under specific conditions, amending the mechanism of reconciliation of violations to be less costly for companies, while maintaining a balance of penalties to ensure compliance with the law.

What about the digital transformation in the GOEIC?

The goal of the GOEIC's digital transformation is to build a smart work environment that facilitates operations and provides innovative solutions to save time and cost for service recipients in line with Egypt’s digital strategy and Egypt’s vision for sustainable development. Therefore, the website has been developed with new features such as electronic payment, foreign trade reports, and booking training courses. A new data warehouse system has also been created, integrating several data sources, and enhancing the accuracy of information. An interactive system is being created to extract foreign trade reports in cooperation with the United States Agency for International Development USAID.

Within the framework of investing in the human element, the Center of Excellence at the GOEIC was accredited by the Central Agency for Organization and Administration, which contributes to providing various training services to exporters and importers through the center and its branches spread across the GOEIC's branches in various fields. One of the most important of these courses was implementing specialized training courses on international trade agreements (MERCOSUR Agreement - Intra-African Free Trade Agreement - COMESA Agreement) with the attendance of various categories of entrepreneurs, exporters, importers, academics and researchers to help them understand the dynamics of the common market and provide greater opportunities to open new export markets.

Have the plans that were drawn up since the first day you took over the responsibility of the GOEIC been achieved?

I cannot say that all the plans have been achieved because that means achieving everything, but this does not prevent that a suitable part of the plans have been achieved and we will continue to work during the coming period to complete what has not been achieved with the aim of implementing the state’s plans in the export and import sectors.