Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Qabil announced that the ministry has successfully achieved the targets of its strategy to provide three million job opportunities in a five-year plan of 2016-2020.

In a statement released on Saturday, the minister pointed out that 311,000 job opportunities have been provided over the past year despite the hardships facing the industry, adding that some 550,000 jobs would be available during the current year with the start of operation of a new industrial complex that is about to be finalized.

The minister also noted that 800,000 job opportunities would be available during 2018, adding that the same number of opportunities would also be provided in 2019 and 2020.

The jobs provided during 2016 were a result of the licenses granted by the Industrial Promotion Authority to establish 630 new factories with total investments hitting 10 billion pounds.