(Public Domain Photo)
By: Lamia Nabil
A recently-published report has expressed particular confidence in Egyptian companies exporting to China and other BRIC nations.
Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade, Hatem Saleh had stated two weeks ago that Egypt’s exports rose by 5% in December 2012, recording revenues of EGP 11.8bn ($1.8 bn), and that Egyptian non-petroleum exports grew by 12% to reach EGP 11.26bn in Jan 2013.
Saleh also said that working in concert with its exporting councils, the ministry is currently seeking to boost trade missions in order expand export markets for Egyptian goods through increasing exports to regular trading partners or through expanding into new markets.
The report was published by multinational office accommodation provider Regus, which canvassed more than 20,000 senior business managers in over 90 countries as part of their research.
The report revealed that firms that export achieve better revenues and profits than businesses that stick to their domestic markets.
According to Regus: “50% of global firms that export say they have increased profits over the last 12 months compared with 38% of companies that only trade domestically, also 59% of companies that export said their revenues had grown compared with 37% of firms focused domestically.”
The researchers mentioned in their report that China is the most popular market with 48% of businesses exporting there; ahead of Europe at 41%; North America, 36%, India, 31%; and South America, 31%.
The most profitable areas for export are emerging markets and Europe.
Economic Expert Dr Ehab El Dosouki said that this is a case of “naive” optimism due to differences in comparison criteria between the current period and between last year, when Egyptian exports suffered from stagnation: “Comparisons, instead, must be made to year-average or year-target, and we will the discover that they [exports] are lower than expected.
El Dosouki added that there is another reason for these increases: the exchange rate difference between the Egyptian pound and the Dollar.
