Trade and Industry Minister Tareq Qabil launched a strategy to promote industrial development and foreign trade.

The 2020 strategy is based on several foundations, including the industrial development movement, development of SMEs and micro-sized enterprises, increase of exports, rationalization of imports and energy consumption and development of technical and vocational education, the minister said during a conference he held Thursday to announce the strategy’s launch and putting it up for discussion.

The conference was attended by a large number of representatives of business organizations, including the Federation of Egyptian Industries, the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, exporters, businesspersons, chairpersons of some parliament committees, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the European Union Delegation to Egypt.

During the event, Qabil said the strategy is based on making industrial development the main drive for economic and sustainable development in Egypt to fulfill the local demand and support the growth of exports through setting a stage conducive for industrial growth pivoted on competitiveness, diversity, knowledge and innovation.

The strategy, to run until 2020, targets an industrial contribution to the GDP of 21% instead of the present 17.7% and the reduction of the budget deficit by 50%, he added.

Source: MENA