The Industrial Modernisation Centre is assisting Egyptian industries in becoming more competitive, reports Mona El-Fiqi The Industrial Modernisation Centre aims at transforming Egypt into a major industrial player in the region by 2025. During a one-day seminar, "Industry: the engine of growth", held by the IMC this week, Helmi Abouleish, IMC managing council member, said that in the last three years, the IMC had provided technical and financial assistance to 2,962 Egyptian companies and factories, representing almost a third of 10,000 industrial companies currently in Egypt. By July 2008 IMC hopes to help every industrial company in Egypt. The result of the IMC's cooperation with companies was an increase of their sales by 25 per cent in 2005. A similar rise is expected in 2006. Likewise, Abouleish forecast that Egyptian exports would increase from $3 billion in 2006 to $12 billion in 2007. With the application of the IMC strategy to support small and medium-size enterprises through the provision of technical and financial assistance, Abouleish hopes the industrial sector will be able to provide 1.9 million job opportunities annually starting 2025. According to Galal El-Zorba Egyptian businessmen's fears that they would be unable to compete with foreign imports have been unfounded. "Egyptian industries were able to hold their own and some even succeeded in making a name for themselves internationally." The facilities provided by the government and new legislation such as customs and tax reform measures have made the investment climate more attractive and helped reduce the cost of doing business in Egypt while encouraging local and foreign investors to establish new projects. In an attempt to boost the potential of Egyptian industries, the European Union, in cooperation with the government, established the IMC a few years ago.
