The Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade is currently implementing a mid-term plan to be used until 2020, aiming to achieve an industrial growth of 8%, reduce the trade deficit by 40%, and increase the share of industry in the GDP by up to 21%, announced Industry Minister Tarek Qabil.
This is in addition to providing 3m new jobs and increasing exports by 10% annually, Qabil added.
The ministry’s urgent goals include improving the industry and trade environment in parallel with the development of the necessary industrial, trade, and investment reforms to begin implementation before the end of the current fiscal year FY 2015/2016.
The plan will be implemented through solving the urgent problems for investors and exporters, improving the industry and trade environment, and reforming the necessary industrial and investment legislation. The ministry will also be restructured, and the decline in exports stopped in the short-term, as well as imports, to improve the performance of the trade balance.
The decisions taken over the past few months have contributed to a marked increase in exports during the first quarter of the current year, Qabil said. Exports rose by 5.3% which also had a significant positive impact in reducing imports by $2.8bn during January and February.
In this regard, Qabil pointed out that the ministry is currently implementing new regulations to support exports based on broadening the beneficiaries of exporters, and to allocate part of the support value for the development of infrastructure for exports through some ports and airports equipped with equipment that will help speed export operations.
The minister denied that the government will cancel support for exports, but rather it seeks to increase the budget of the export development fund during the next FY 2016/2017.
