By Abdelkader Ramadan In what seemed to be his political will to his successor in the new government, current Minister of Industry and Trade Mohamed Eissa proposed a number of projects which he hopes the Ministry would undertake. Eysa said in a statement that increasing production at the 1570 factories currently going through difficulties topped the list of priorities. He also said that increasing industrial production in co-ordination with the Federation of Egyptian Industries, the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation, and defence manufacturers was a priority. He called for increasing Egyptian exports by 25-30% on a yearly basis and creating new laws to simplify domestic and foreign investment. The proposals also called for greater attention for the 15 technology research centres subject to the Ministry. He predicated the plan to increase production at under capacity factories and increase employment on agreements signed with the Central Bank, the Federation of Egyptian Banks, and the leadership of private banks. The agreements include new financing for non-operational factories and debt restructuring measures. The proposal includes greater financing for production inputs to encourage imports and consumption. Eysa envisions the establishment of new small and medium sized industrial centres. He also called on Egypt's 36,000 factories to fulfil their social responsibility by employing workers and helping reduce the rate of unemployment. Finally, he called on Egypt to benefit from co-operation agreements signed with the United States and Germany, as well as an increase in training programmes. On revitalising Egyptian exports, Eysa noted that the Ministry's plan is to increase its promotional campaigns for Egyptian products and to focus efforts on emerging markets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The Ministry also plans to focus the efforts of the Export Development Fund on labour intensive industries and small and medium sized industries. In addition, the Ministry intends to revisit its policy on imports. Eysa said that a number of steps have been taken to prevent harmful practices that are the result of subsidies, including imposing preventative fines on importing textile products. He added the Ministry will work to co-ordinate with all interested government agencies to prevent smuggling and to apply laws that obligate government agencies to purchase domestically produced products. He particularly stressed the need to create a unified framework in order to encourage the development of small and medium sized industries.
