Egypt approves new initiative for industrial sector

The Egyptian Cabinet has approved initiative to support the industry sector that includes providing loans with interest rates not exceeding 10 percent.

It will also include allocating more loans of 100 billion Egyptian pounds with a diminishing interest of 10 percent among the small and medium enterprises initiative.

In addition, The initiative includes rescheduling of the debts and the accumulated dues  of factories and a review of the black lists  of the by banks regarding the industrial sector, as well as focusing on a number of industrial sectors that use local component and with high-labor e rates such as engineering, textile and building materials.

Factories with annual sales of less than 1 billion pounds can now borrow at subsidized rates.

Earlier, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli has chaired a high-level meeting to mull preparations for launching an initiative to support the industry sector.

The meeting was attended by Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Tarek Amer, Minister of Industry Amr Nassar, Niveen Gamea, CEO of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency and CBE officials.

The industrial sector is currently contributing $45 billion to the Egyptian gross domestic product.