The Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade, in coordination with the Social Fund for Development (SFD), is currently tackling a number of challenges facing 20 insolvent factories producing aluminium products, said Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour. The SFD will use available funding programmes to grant loans to the factories, located in Mit Ghamr, after conducting technical studies to determine which are eligible for funding, according to a statement from the ministry. Around 960 factories have submitted requests for funding to the Industrial Modernisation Center (IMC), which represents the ministry; 20 of the requests were made from insolvent factories in Mit Ghamr, Abdel Nour said. Field visits by SFD to the Mit Ghamr factories will begin by the end of the current week in order to identify the present financial and technical problems. These statements came through a Sunday meeting between Abdel Nour and Mit Ghamr's investors in small and medium enterprises, where they discussed the negative effects of halting most of their production as a result of the political turmoil. Abdel Nour noted that the Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade is currently coordinating with the Ministry of Finance to obtain EGP 500m, which was allocated by the government in a stimulus package securing funds for struggling factories. The interim government adopted two economic stimulus packages with a fund totalling nearly EGP 60bn in order to establish infrastructure projects in all governorates. Mit Ghamr, in Al Daqahleya, manufactures more than 70% of Egypt total aluminium production. Earlier in October, Abdel Nour stated that factories suffered liquidity shortages as a result of the high demand for financial resources by investors and the government during the last three years. The Egyptian Manufacturers Association held a meeting with representatives from the Central Bank of Egypt and other banks last August requesting an extension on their loan repayment. In August 2012, the former Minister of Industry announced that the ministry is negotiating with a number of banks to reach settlements for 1,500 factories that have defaulted on their loans in the aftermath of January 2011 revolution. Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Bahaa El Din, along with Abdel Nour, inaugurated earlier in January a number of factories in Assuit, which is deemed part of a governmental initiative to improve industrial development in Upper Egypt, increase employment and attract investments to the region.
