President Hosni Mubarak keen to promote technological development, industry
Egypt, Economics, 3/22/2000

President Hosni Mubarak convened an extended ministerial meeting to discuss Egypt's ambitious industrial and technological development program.

The meeting sought to help "a technological breakthrough and establish specialized Egyptian institutions to carry out technological development programs, Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif said.

"This meeting is a part of a series of meetings the President intends to hold with different sectors to discuss their future plans," he told reporters upon emerging from the meeting.

He added that the meeting also shed light on the achievements Egypt's industry has made since President Mubarak assumed office 19 years ago.

"Among the principles President Mubarak stressed were the importance of improving the quality of Egyptian products and raising the productivity of workers and technicians to reduce production costs," Sherif said.

He added that the two above-mentioned aspects would help the country increase its exports and create more jobs.

Safwat El Sherif also said that the Industry Minister had presented a four-year technological development plan at the meeting.

"The plan proposed the establishment of a holding company for industrial and technological development, and a national program for improving product quality," he said.

The plan, which expires in 2004, also calls for developing vocational training centers, giving more attention to small projects and modernizing all agencies working in the field of industry, he continued.

"Another long-term plan was discussed during the meeting with the President. The plan, which ends in the year 2010, aims at establishing companies and research centers for industrial and technological progress," Sherif said.

He added: "In light of these discussions, President Mubarak instructed the government to discuss several proposals for technological development, foremost being the establishment of a privately-operated holding company for technological development to be financed with state funds.

The Egyptian Leader, Sherif told reporters, also highlighted the importance of boosting industry through developing existing industries, making use of the unused resources, introducing hi-tech industries and adopting plans to develop mining and heavy industries.

The meeting also probed a proposal to set up a supreme council for quality control to help shape national plans for improving the quality and standardization of Egyptian products in addition to developing state quality control labs.

Sherif said that the research carried out by the company with a concession to search for gold in Egypt's eastern desert had shown underground reserves of around 2 million ounces with a total value of 600 million US dollars. "Total reserves expected to be found in the desert may reach 10 million ounces, valued at 3 billion US dollars," he added.

The Information Minister estimated the total cost of the ten-year technological and industrial development program to be LE 3.6 billion. He added that the government's program to upgrade Egypt's computer and soft ware industry figured high on the expanded meeting's agenda.

"The first stage of the project includes manufacturing one million computers at a total cost of LE2.5 billion. Up to 40 per cent of the components of these machines will be locally produced, with the amount increasing in the following stages," he said.

"The Military Production Minister has indicated that the Egyptian market can absorb 35 million computers while the annual production is now just 350,000 machines. The target is to increase the production to one million computers to be sold at suitable price," Sherif told reporters.

Previous Stories:
  100 Egyptian and European companies in European- Mediterranean partnership conference in Cairo   (3/21/2000)
  Egyptian computer software companies seek presence in Dubai City for Internet   (3/17/2000)
  Establishing 200 small projects for Egyptian youths   (3/16/2000)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search