PRESIDENT Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has celebrated Labour Day with workers, Reem Leila reports. The event, marked annually on 1 May, was held earlier, 27 April, by the Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions at Masa Hotel, and was attended by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and Minister of Manpower Mohamed Saafan along with other government officials and dignitaries. During the celebration Al-Sisi allocated LE100 million from the Long Live Egypt Fund (Tahya Misr) to the Manpower Ministry's emergency fund to assist workers in sectors such as tourism. Al-Sisi stressed the importance of establishing a competitive industrial base that would enable the country to increase its exports to African and global markets. “We want to hold high the slogan ‘Made in Egypt' everywhere around the world,” he said. The country's tourism sector, which employs at least four million people, has taken a heavy hit since the deadly October 2015 crash of a Russian passenger plane in Sinai which killed 224 people. Tourism revenues of $500 million in the first quarter of 2016 were down from $1.5 billion a year earlier. The president also cited technology and electronic industries as important venues for exports. According to recent data released by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), Egypt's exports to non-Arab African countries amounted to $260 million out of a total $9 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year 2015/16. Meanwhile, Al-Sisi pointed to the necessity of swift ratification of all labour laws that would affect production.
