Mubarak: Buy and promote local products to protect jobs, unwise consumption hurts Egypt
Egypt, Economics, 6/15/1999

President Hosni Mubarak spoke with local media chief editors about the recent regulations aiming to limit and control purchases from the tax free shops.

Commodities were being smuggled, threatening the local industry and the factories with closure and workers with losing their jobs, Mubarak said. "My duty is to protect the Egyptian industry, the Egyptian production and the job opportunities of Egyptian workers in their factories...it is not the duty of the government to protect smuggling or to market foreign products that are otherwise made here," he added.

The smuggling operations had grown out of proportion, and some villages even turned into private free zones, where thousands of passports were being collected from travelers returning from abroad for the purchase of tax free goods and later for their sale at lower prices in the private tax free zones, he said.

This has led to stagnation and has threatened Egyptian factories with closure, he added.

But the government will not allow these regulations to detriment anyone, and is ready to treat any side-effects and settle all problems that may appear, he said.

President Mubarak called on the Egyptian people to stop the unwise consumption of imported goods. He said he meant especially those who follow a new fashion to merely boast of buying imported ice-creams, milk products or chocolates.

"I can never be a genuine Egyptian if I buy these foreign products that are out of control...these products must be very fresh to be safe and this will only be found in the similar Egyptian product. Limiting this mode of consumption has actually started, which will show by the end of this year on the size of imports that will be reduced from dlr. 17 billion to dlr. 14billion," he added.

President Mubarak said he will continue to follow-up the work progress in the major national projects such as the northwest Suez project.

For his part, Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri told the editors in chief that recently the Egyptian economy showed positive indicators.

International finance institutions have great confidence in the Egyptian economy and the success of the Egyptian economic and financial reform program, he said.

They have offered Egypt soft loans, but it is the government's policy not to rush towards loans unless they are used for projects the country is in need of, he added.

Previous Stories:
  Egyptian trade delegation arrives in Iran   (6/14/1999)
  Italy refuses the entry of 20 tons of Egyptian onions   (6/12/1999)
  New attempts to revive Egyptian nuclear program   (6/12/1999)
  Reforming free trade zone agreement between Egypt and Libya   (6/11/1999)

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