Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait has confirmed that the government continues to implement presidential mandates to support industry and agriculture, in a way that contributes to achieving the strategic goals of the state, meeting the needs of local demand, limiting imports, expanding exports to $100bn, and providing job opportunities. Maait explained, in a statement on Saturday, that the successive global crises have proven the correctness of the Egyptian vision in intensifying efforts to stimulate productive and export activities, starting with providing an advanced infrastructure capable of absorbing investment expansions, up to tax and customs incentives, and credit facilities; as the Coronavirus pandemic and the war in Europe led to disruption in the supply and supply chains, and hence the rise in prices of goods and services, there is no alternative to enhancing the contributions of industrial and agricultural production to the structure of economic growth. He added that the state's public treasury bears EGP 10bn annually in the interest rate difference in the initiative to support the productive sectors by providing EGP 150bn in soft financing at 11% interest for agricultural and industrial production activities, as EGP 140bn is allocated to finance working capital and EGP 10bn to purchase machinery, equipment or lines production over a period of 5 years, which contributes to encouraging investors to expand production and export as well, especially in light of the great efforts in support of exporters, which were reflected in several initiatives launched by the government during the period from October 2019 until now, to return the delayed export burdens with the Export Development Fund. He added that EGP 48bn has been spent on export support for 2,500 companies, with the government intending, starting from the next fiscal year, to disburse support for exporters in the same year of export, in a way that helps provide the necessary cash liquidity to stimulate production. Maait affirmed the government's keenness to expand the base of beneficiaries of the initiative to support the productive sectors, industry and agriculture, by setting a maximum of EGP 75m for financing one company, and EGP 112.5m for multilateral entities, pointing out that this initiative applies to new and renewable energy activities and factories, free zones and agricultural cooperative societies, and it is prohibited to use these granted credit facilities to pay off any debts owed to the banking sector, in order to ensure the achievement of the desired goals so that this initiative contributes effectively to advancing agricultural and industrial production, in a way that is reflected in enabling the state to cover our needs more with local production and export surpluses abroad. He pointed out that the state's general treasury bears EGP 5bn worth of real estate tax on the industrial and productive sectors for a period of three years, and also bears EGP 6bn annually to subsidize electricity for industry, and the development fee and customs tax on importing mobile components will be cancelled to encourage the mobile phone industry in Egypt.
