The winners of Egypt's first Business Plan Competition for Industry were announced at an awards ceremony Monday at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East in Sharm El-Sheikh. Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid gave out prizes to the winners of "Mashroak Hakika (Make your Project a Reality). The winning project was Jetac Inks Co. Ltd, a new company that will serve Egypt's booming advertising and print industry by producing high quality solvent based inks for inkjet outdoor printing. Currently, these products are not manufactured in the Middle East and must be imported. The runner up prize went to BFC fibers, a business that will produce and encourage the use of bio-fibers across several industrial sectors in Egypt. BFC fibers will be produced from agricultural residues and aims to replace the use of wood in various stages of the production. The initiative was launched last year by the ministry in an effort to create a pipeline of new projects and innovative ideas for the Egypt's industrial sector. "Last year we asked ourselves a few simple questions: Who will be Egypt's largest and most successful exporters 20 years from today? What can we do to nurture Egypt's next generation of competitive manufacturers and exporters? To build businesses that will keep our country prosperous and competitive in the future? "To find the answer, we launched a nationwide Business Plan Competition inviting anyone with a good idea - or a dream project sitting at home in the drawer - to come forward and share with us their vision. For our part, the government would give the winning project the financing, mentoring and technical support they needed to make their project a reality, Rachid said at the awards ceremony. More than 2,000 applicants from across Egypt entered the competition, proposing a range of innovative ideas at various stages of the production cycle. "Our hope is that the great ideas generated by the competition will result in a string of successful start-ups that could become suppliers for larger enterprises, and plug important supply gaps in Egyptian industry, Rachid said.
