CAIRO – Shopping in the upmarket area of Mohandiseen is a pleasure that 23-year-old Aliaa Maged would never miss especially in the sale season. She is usually keen to buy Egyptian brands that have tremendously developed their products made from cotton in terms of quality and fashion. But she had never really thought about the steps any of the items go through, from the initial growing of the cotton they are made from until they finally reach a clothes hanger and are put on sale. The local textile industry was enhanced by investments of Banque Misr; the first national bank established 81 years ago by Talaat Harb to support a wide range of integrated economic activities. Egypt at the time was a stronghold for a textiles industry that relied on the cultivation of long-staple cotton that was converted into yarn and then into cloth in local plants, working as independent components in a system that proved feasible for years. However, the problems faced today by this sector, which engages a total workforce of about l5 million, have made it necessary to come up with some smart thinking. Experts attribute the entangled problems to the fact that the sector is divided between three ministries, namely those of agriculture, investment and industry where co-ordination is the weakest link. Calls have been, therefore, made for the establishment of a textile portfolio that would be completely in charge of cotton in both its raw and manufactured states. Mohamed Naguib, the board member of the Textile Industries Chamber, believes that conditions have deteriorated in this gigantic industry. Although India is the only country that appoints a minister assigned to the spinning and weaving sector, unlike, as he said, Turkey, China and Italy, nevertheless he finds the concept applicable in the Egyptian case. “It might require sacrifices at the outset but the result would be worthwhile on the long run” he told Al-Akhbar Arabic daily. Following the 1952 revolution, the textile industry fell mainly into the hands of the public sector. However, it was under the Atef Obeid cabinet in the mid-1990s that a strong tendency for privatisation started to show its ugly face. The sector began a downhill path that has ended up today with the closure of some plants in Mahala el-Kobra, a place whose name has long been synonymous with the textile industry in Egypt. Abdel-Meguid Assal, the managing director of Arab Company for Textiles in Alexandria, one of the companies which has been adversely affected by the current shortage of yarn, explains that the high prices of imported yarn have caused local companies great losses. He went on to be explain that the lack of Egyptian yarn, which is caused by defective agricultural policies that have discouraged farmers from growing cotton, has left companies with no other option but to resort to imported yarn. He admitted that the setback in this sector had reduced the competitiveness of Egypt in world markets. Abdallah Bassiouni, the Board Chairman of another specialised company in Mustorod, accused the Agriculture Ministry under the former Nazif cabinet of deliberately lax policies and practices relating to cotton cultivation and its expansion. “Limiting the extent of the planting of the Upland Cotton strain which had previously yielded an average of l5 quintals (1500 kilograms) per feddan (acre) is a crime for which apologists of the Mubarak regime, who still hold positions in the Agriculture Ministry, have to be held responsible,” said Bassiouni.
