$450 million in Japanese Korean soft loans to Industry

The Egyptian industry has recently received $ 450 million in easy-term loans ($ 300 million from the Korean development bank and $ 150 million from the Japanese development bank) to upgrade its performance and its competitive capability in local and foreign market, said head of the modernization committee and deputy chairman of the Egyptian industries Federation, Shafik Baghdady, in a recent meeting held by the Egyptian industries federation.

Baghdady said that the Egyptian industry contributes with 20 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The government is keen to modernize industry via the national program for modernizing industry and the modernization program in cooperation with the EU, he said.

Baghdady further said that the programme, whose total costs hit $ 20-30 billion, would include vocational training programmes and technology transfer.

"The strategy of modernizing industry aims at raising the industrial sector's growth rates to 12 per cent annually, and industrial investments to 30 per cent of the GDP, compared to 22 per cent at present," Baghdady said.

He added that the EU has, via the program, provided 250 million euros in technical assistance to 5000 Egyptian small and medium-size industrial establishments.