Cairo – The Egyptian government has announced a new initiative in support of the productive sectors — industry and agriculture — to encourage them to enhance local production, focusing on stimulating priority sectors to increase the country’s capacities to deal with the repercussion of global crises.
The initiative includes the reduction of interest rates on loans made to these sectors to help them deal with those negative repercussions. The total value of the proposed initiative over a period of five years is around EGP 150 billion (USD 5 billion), of which around EGP 140 billion (USD 4.7) are to finance working capital operation, plus around EGP 10 billion (USD 3 billion) to finance the purchase of capital equipment.
Egypt prime minister Mostafa Madbouly said the effort aims to bring about economic development, achieve the economic goals of the Egyptian state and increase its capacities to deal with the repercussions of global crises. The initiative follows a series of measures previously taken by the government to support the industrial sector.
Egypt Finance minister Mohamed Maait explained the initiative is aimed at supporting industry and agriculture to cope with economic repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, and the consequent negative repercussions on various aspects of life.
The Finance minister also indicated that the amount of credit available to each company will be determined in the light of the size of its business and the banking rules that regulate it, underlining that companies participating in the initiative will receive loans at a subsidized interest rate of 11%, with the state will bearing the difference in the interest rate.
Translated by Georgette Merkhan & Guilherme Miranda
