Ayady Company for Investment and Development will launch a number of projects in the second quarter (Q2) of 2015, said Minister of Planning Ashraf El-Araby, adding that the company will participate in developing the Farafra region. In an interview with state television on Friday, El-Araby explained that Ayady Company does not aim to loan projects, but rather to enter projects as a partner to share profits and losses. Ayady Company was launched in December by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb and the Ministers of Planning, International Cooperation, Education, Higher Education, Social Solidarity and Youth. El-Araby said at that time that Ayady aims to use the energies of young Egyptians to meet the urgent development requirements nationwide. Under the slogan of "Let's Work", Ayady will create 500,000 job opportunities in the field of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The company was founded with an initial capital of EGP 10bn, of which 20% is a government contribution and 80% is from the private sector. El-Araby said that Ayady was activated in coordination with the Federation of Egyptian Industries, the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce and the Egyptian Junior Businessmen Association. Ayady is initiated in cooperation between the Ministries of Planning and Local Development and under the auspices of Ministries of Industry, Investment, Endowment and Youth and Sports. Egypt's unemployment rate has slightly decreased in Q1 of 2015 to register 12.8%, down from 12.9% in Q4 of 2014, and 13.4% in the corresponding quarter last year, state-run agency the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) reported on Sunday. In fiscal year (FY) 2013/2014, the unemployment rate stabilised at 13.3%. Before the 25 January Revolution, the unemployment rate had recorded 9%, according to CAPMAS 2010 figures. At the beginning of this year, the government developed a national training plan to encourage employment as part of its efforts to reduce unemployment. The plan is to also eliminate the problems associated with over three million individuals, almost 13.1% of the labour force, being currently unemployed. The plan aims to provide two million with jobs. 170,000 jobs were provided throughout 2014, of which 70% were filled, Mehleb said at that time, noting that the goal is to increase the number of these opportunities by 25% during each stage.
