The Ministry of Trade and Industry established a new entity under the title of Export Development Center and included an Egyptian International Trade Point Sector (EITP) and Foreign Trade Training Center (FTTC).
Tarek Kabil, Minister of Trade and Industry, stated that the centre is a unified entity, and all concerned export units will play a role in implementing the ministry’s strategy of increasing Egyptian exports in the international market.
The ministry aims to achieve a 10% annual growth in exports, in order to increase its export value to $30bn by 2020.
Kabil said that this centre maximises the efforts of existing entities and eliminates any duplication and inconsistency in their work.
He explained that the centre’s board of directors agreed to activate the role of the centre to become the authority responsible for Egypt’s exports. The centre is to include some institutions that are part of the ministry, including the EITP and FTTC.
A source at the ministry said that the appointment of the head of the centre and his deputies and forming the administrative structure will happen in the coming days.
A group of exporters said that activating the role of the Export Development Center as an umbrella for the export sector is a step towards increasing Egyptian exports but that the function of the centre and its working mechanisms require explanation.
Sherif El Beltagy, a member at the Export Council for Agricultural Crops, said that the decision is good for the unification of the decisions and roles of export officials in the government. He added that the mission of the Export Development Center is unclear.
El Beltagy explained that the decision requires transparency as well as clarifying the work mechanism of the centre and ways of cooperation with exporters.
Hany Qsees, member of the Chemical Export Council (CEC), said that setting the export strategy requires work with the pluralist system between different sectors and with each sector separately because of the different industry system.
He added that a unified strategy can’t be applied on all sectors, as it may become compatible with one of them and negatively affect the other, which must be taken into account.
