CAIRO: According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, international investors are eyeing the Egyptian textile industry. The ministry stated that it is developing and aiding in the growth of textile companies in order to meet the demands of European importers and global markets. "A number of initiatives and programs have already begun to assist in the development of the industry. Technology centers, such as the Egyptian National Cleaner Production Center, were established to boost industrial exports, Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said at a conference on cleaner production, entitled "The Gateway to Increasing Egyptian Textile Exports. In a speech delivered on the minister's behalf, Hani Barakat, the chairman of the Technological Development Sector in the ministry, said that the developments undertaken by the government for the textile industry in the country were made in order to improve Egyptian products and make the industry more competitive amongst world markets and to attract more foreign investments and create new jobs. The textile industry is making the most important contribution to the growth of the Egyptian economy. There are 5,000 textile factories in Egypt, in which LE 20 billion has been invested, said the minister in a press release issued by the ministry. The minister also added that the textile industry accounted for 25 percent of total industrial exports. A plan to increase textile exports from $1 billion a year to $5 billion a year by 2010, as well as to increase the number of workers in this sector to 2 million, is also in the works, according to the minister. Rachid stressed that the purpose of establishing the center is to provide different industrial sectors with a clean environment and modern technology in order to encourage companies and factories to meet the international environmental standards required by global markets. The Egyptian National Cleaner Production Center was established by the ministry in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), whose main function is to improve the living conditions of people and promote global prosperity by offering tailor-made solutions for the sustainable industrial development of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Paying more attention to cleaner production is the key for promoting Egyptian textile exports, the minister said. Since the government signed the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) protocol between Egypt, the United States and Israel, the textile industry has seen a boost in profits and investments. According to recent statistics by the Egyptian State Information Services (SIS), three new factories are set up daily and 75 industrial zones have spread throughout the country with 20,000 factories and thousands of workshops that produce manufactured products using highly sophisticated technologies. The QIZ agreement plays a great role in the textile industry and is the main contributor to the growth of the market. Through QIZ, Egyptian textile and garment companies are able to work with the U.S. market, which, simply by its sheer size, provides huge profit opportunities for the country.In fact, the U.S. market holds many advantages over European ones. U.S. markets are consolidated, which means that only one company, such as Sears, deals with as large a number as 280 million customers, he said. However, that is not the case in the fragmented European markets, where there is not a single company that can import products for the whole of Europe, Mohamed Kassem, the chairman of World Trading Company, was quoted as saying in an article published by Al-Ahram Weekly. In the past, the country was unable to tap into the U.S. market due to insufficient investments, the industry's inability to meet U.S. standards and the quotas that were set forth by the government that made it difficult for companies to export in large quantities. Then the government ended the Multifiber Agreement (MFA), which had set quotas on the amount of exports of textiles and clothing coming from developing countries to the markets of the United States and Europe. With its demise, garments and textiles imported from developing countries were no longer regulated by what used to be a complex import quota system and, thus, the industry was given a legal chance to properly enter and compete in the global textile market.
