كامل الوزير: 30 مليار جنيه تسهيلات تمويلية للقطاع الصناعى بعائد 15%

During the fourteenth meeting of the Ministerial Group for Industrial Development, Lieutenant General Engineer Kamel Al-Wazir, Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development, Minister of Industry and Transport, and Ahmed Kouchouk, Minister of Finance, announced today, Sunday, the launch of the first phase of the new initiative to support companies in priority industrial sectors, as the new initiative includes Providing 30 billion pounds of financing facilities to the private sector to purchase machinery, equipment, and production lines in the pharmaceutical industry, food, engineering, and chemical industries, the ready-made clothing industry, spinning and weaving, the mining industry, and the building materials industry, and giving priority to facilities. Established in the areas most in need of development and the most employment, such as the border governorates, including the Red Sea south of Safaga, the governorates of Upper Egypt and southern Giza, and the Suez Canal region (Port Said, Ismailia, and Suez, east of the canal). The “General Treasury of the State” contributes to financing this initiative, and bears the interest rate difference. ; To increase production capacity and enhance economic growth.

The companies joining this initiative will benefit from the subsidized return rate from the “General Treasury” of 15% for a period of 5 years from the date of the start of the initiative, provided that the maximum financing for one client is 75 million pounds, and the related parties are 100 million pounds. These companies also receive An additional reduction in interest rates is 1% when the local added value in its products increases from the previous fiscal year by a rate ranging from 7% to 10%. The additional reduction increases to 1.5% when the local added value increases by more than 10%. The additional reduction in interest rates also rises to 2% for new industrial activities that have not previously been produced locally and whose import volume is large.

Benefiting from this initiative is linked to obtaining a building permit, completing construction, and opening a documentary credit for machinery, equipment, and production lines imported from abroad, or a tax invoice when purchasing locally. Soft financing may not be used to pay any debts owed to companies in the banking sector, and this initiative will be re-evaluated. On the ground, according to increasing the quantities and types of actual production, local added value, increasing corporate assets and revenues, localizing new industries, filling a local gap, and linking products to global chains.

The joint statement of the Ministries of Industry and Finance indicated that the new initiative targets private sector companies operating in 7 priority industrial sectors, identified by the Ministry of Industry, which are: the pharmaceutical industry “manufacturing active drug substances that include oncology drugs, antibiotics, and others – manufacturing cosmetics,” and engineering industries. Industrial production line machines and equipment – industries feeding new and renewable energy projects – solar energy cells and their components, and components of solar power plants – inputs to green hydrogen production projects and green fuel derivatives – electrolyzer used in green hydrogen production – components of wind power plants And its supplies – manufacturing molds – containers – generators and transformers of all kinds – tractors, agricultural machinery and drilling machines – repairing water desalination supplies – refrigeration and air conditioning devices – electronic industries – mobile phones”, and food industries “powdered milk and infant formula – manufacturing operations of medicinal and aromatic plants, whether dried or pastes.” Or oils – dried fruits – fruit concentrates”, the textile industries “industrial yarns from raw materials – mixed yarns”, and the chemical industries “manufacturing Inks of all kinds – polyethylene, polypropylene – acrylic”, the mining industry “processing of mineral raw materials used in the pharmaceutical and food sectors – technological industries”, and the building materials industry “ceramic – marble and granite – pipes”.

The Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development and Minister of Industry and Transport confirmed that this new initiative comes within 3 initiatives that will work in parallel, the first of which is the initiative launched by the Central Bank previously to finance the industrial sectors to purchase equipment and machinery, an initiative that is still in place and meets the rest of the needs of the industrial companies that received this financing. The latest of these initiatives is a new initiative that the Central Bank is currently studying, which is the establishment of a fund that includes a sum of money from banks and financiers to help troubled factories, pointing out that any investor who benefited from financing in the previous initiative is prohibited from benefiting from this initiative. New proposed by the Ministry of Finance.

During the group meeting, the new package of incentives and facilities approved by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources was announced to contribute to solving most of the problems of manufacturers regarding their debts to the Ministry. The incentives included launching an initiative to pay a minimum value of the arrears debt without interest within 3 months from the date of issuance. The decision was made for a number of industrial investors (about 1,700 clients) representing about 50% of the total industrial clients, in addition to studying the possibility of paying the new debts in installments over a period of up to 10 years. To reduce the monthly burden on investors, provided that the interest rate announced by the Central Bank is applied, with a commitment to pay new withdrawals on their due dates. The incentives provided by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources include applying the average exchange rate of a month prior to the date of issuing the invoice for exporting factories that pay their bills in dollars. In order to maintain the stability of the average applied exchange rate and avoid a sudden increase in the exchange rate, it was also decided to increase the period for paying consumption bills to 30 days for a period of one year, starting from the issuance of the decision, in order to further facilitate investors.

With regard to industrial facilities that request gas connection, the cost of connection will be paid in installments for two years without any interest, and the Ministry will issue a pricing decision to unify the price of gas applied to government electricity generation activity to be applied to the price of gas for other private companies for the purpose of generating electricity. It was also decided to cancel the claim retroactively as well. Differences resulting from claims issued at a price higher than the price applied to government electricity, in addition to concluding a cooperation protocol with all industrial customers to supply used oils to the petroleum sector with its value deducted from their debts.

These incentives come within the framework of the Ministerial Group for Industrial Development’s keenness to find radical and rapid solutions to a number of challenges facing industrial investors through all relevant ministries, members of the group, to support the industry and lift the burdens on manufacturers to ensure the continuation of production operations in factories, and in response to the requests received by the group that were discussed during the meetings. The weekly meeting held by the Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development and the Minister of Industry and Transport at the headquarters of the General Authority for Industrial Development with industrial investors from various governorates to listen to their demands and the challenges they face to find immediate solutions to them, which included the challenges Related to the payment of late dues for gas bills and the resulting debts, and demands to be granted additional deadlines for payment.

The Minister confirmed that the ministerial group meetings have made great strides over the past 6 months in the industry file and have succeeded in finding solutions to many issues that were outstanding and represented a challenge to the industry sector.

During the meeting, the outcomes and recommendations of the study on maximizing the utilization of phosphate ore in Egypt were reviewed, which the Ministerial Group for Industrial Development was commissioned at its ninth meeting to prepare by the General Authority for Industrial Development, the Mineral Resources Authority, the Holding Company for Mineral Industries, and the Center for Industrial Modernization, in addition to polling the opinion of the Federation of Egyptian Industries. The recommendations of the study included opening the door to exploration through the Egyptian General Authority for Mineral Resources continuing to issue bids to search for phosphate ore for companies that add value, and directing investment in the field of phosphate ore extraction for the purpose of Manufacturing (due to the limited profitability and high costs and risks compared to the field of manufacturing the production of phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizers which are more profitable), in addition to encouraging companies in the public and private sectors to invest in raising the concentration of low-concentration phosphate ore and manufacturing phosphate fertilizers and phosphoric acid with the aim of exploiting companies’ stocks of low-quality phosphate ore. The continued export of raw materials extracted from the Abu Tartur Plateau because it contains impurities and concentrations of other materials that affect its quality (the percentage of iron and aluminum oxides). With a study of increasing exports to markets capable of absorbing larger quantities of low-quality extracted ore to countries such as India and Brazil, in addition to quickly completing the preparation of policies for all mineral ores to achieve optimal exploitation of these wealth in cooperation between the relevant state authorities and the private sector to maximize the returns achieved.

The Minister directed the formation of a committee of specialists from the Ministries of Industry and Petroleum to formulate a strategy for the localization of the phosphate industry in Egypt, taking into account the strategy’s compatibility with all European Union laws and the mechanisms for switching from the use of fossil fuels in the phosphate industry to renewable energy in line with the carbon credits available to Egypt, as well as determining the reserve available in Egypt’s phosphate ore and optimal marketing methods for the mining sector, especially phosphate ore, in addition to studying agreements related to exploration and export of phosphate ore to maximize its added value and secure the needs of the local industry based on phosphate ore.

During the meeting, the Ministry of Public Business Sector’s plan to develop the aluminum industry was reviewed. The presentation addressed the stages of the aluminum industry, the most important global indicators for this industry, the quantities of aluminum produced by Misr Aluminum Company, the company’s sales, its current and future projects, and the investment opportunities available in the aluminum sector, the most important of which is the aluminum wire machine production project. With the aim of increasing the added value of the local industry and rationalizing imports, a project to produce tablets for pharmaceutical packaging, an aluminum foil production project, a solar energy station project that will be completed within a year and a half, and a cardboard aluminum slag recycling project. 8 thousand tons annually, and an alumina silo production project with a capacity of 50 thousand tons annually with the aim of increasing the storage capacity of alumina, and a project to rehabilitate the company’s current smelter at a total cost of $260 million over 5 years, in addition to a project to produce vehicle rims, a new factory project for aluminum production to increase production capacity, and establishing an additional production line for the company’s factory at a cost of one billion pounds and with a production capacity of 200 thousand tons annually, with the implementation period being 3 years, with the aim of replacing 60% of the current market imports and increasing The company’s production capacity will reach 510 tons annually and its exports will increase to reach $577 million, and the alumina refinery project.

The fourteenth meeting of the ministerial group reviewed a number of requests submitted by some companies and the challenges they face, which included the request of the Cyril Company for the manufacture and production of porcelain and ceramics, where the company’s problem with the gas company was resolved, as the Minister stressed that solving all problems for all factories is considered one of the first concerns. The Ministry of Industry, and the group also approved submitting a proposal to the Prime Minister not to cut off any services (gas / electricity / water) to brick factories throughout the Republic that have legal problems presented before the judiciary until the court’s decision is issued with approval. By adhering to the court ruling and paying the consideration at the new price on time.

The meeting also reviewed the plan for the Al-Akrasha and Bassous regions in Qalyubia Governorate to transform them into planned industrial zones, as the Minister directed coordination with the General Authority for Industrial Development in this regard, with the Ministry of Industry preparing to provide the necessary funding for the design and implementation of the two zones.