Minister of Trade and Industry Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour on Saturday said that the government hopes to achieve a seven percent growth rate in the next five years.
In a round table as part of the EEDC, Abdel Nour added that his ministry developed a plan to increase the industry sector's share in Egypt's GDP over the next few years to reach 22 percent instead of the current rate of 17 percent.
The government has taken steps to reform the industrial structure to shift from the production of low value-added products based on resources to produce high value-added products based on technology, the minister said.
The industrial sector in Egypt has a strong development potentials including the high-skilled employment, the diverse knowledge, the abundant natural resources and the huge domestic consumer market, he added.
Egypt has signed several strategic free trade agreements, as GAFTA, QIZ, COMESA and "EFTA which open large markets for the national products, Abdel Nour said.
The Industry Minister said that the outward-oriented policies taken by the Egyptian government aim to integrate the industrial sector in the global economy, through promoting foreign direct investment in some industrial projects, especially those that use high technologies.
He added that the government also works to develop free trade agreements to support the industrial sector.
We also develop an ambitious strategy for industrial exports, he added.
The minister said the government works to strength self-employment projects as well as medium, small, and micro-sized enterprises.
The government has a strict strategy for the development of these projects through institutional reforms of their main financiers and developing a conglomerates program to promote bonding between them and large companies, the minister said.
Source: MENA