Hussein Mostafa, the executive director of the Egyptian Automobile Manufacturers Association (EAMA) and the chairperson of the automobile committee of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), said the committee has stopped over the past period in order to study the developments of the automobile market. This includes the increase in the price of automobiles, which led to a decline in sales during the first quarter of this year before making the sales of 100,000 cars, which negatively impacted car companies and car agents in Egypt, leading to a significant decrease of importing. All these reasons made the committee freeze its activities until the market settles to make a report that suits these changes.
Mostafa said the committee aims to reach a strategy to develop and increase the local manufacturing of cars through increasing the local component and exporting abroad, noting that the committee’s report is different from the car manufacturing strategy prepared in the parliament. He emphasised the fact that the committee will resume its work soon.
The automobile committee formed by Tarek Amer, the governor of the CBE, in December, which works with the EAMA and the Minister of Investment to study developing local car manufacturing and enhancing local produce, has decided earlier to hand the committee’s report to Amer.
It is worth mentioning that the committee comprised of Mounir El Zahid, the chairperson of Banque du Caire; Khaled Saad, secretary of the EAMA; Ashraf El Bahy, head of the control sector in the CBE; Yasser Hegazy, vice president of the GUC; Sherif Hammad, former minister of scientific research; Amr Adly, the vice president of Cairo University; El Sayed Tag El Dein, the dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University; Mohamed Aboul Fadl, adviser to the Minister of Investment; and Mohamed Anis, chairperson of the Arab American Vehicles Company.
The joint automobile committee of the CBE and the EAMA has held several meetings over the past period in the presence of a number of representatives of university presidents, deans, a number of banks, the Minister of Investment, and the Minister of Industry in order to study ways of developing the manufacturing of automobiles at the present time.
