Egypt committed to privatization

The government is committed to the privatization program, Minister of Public Enterprise Mokhtar Khattab said yesterday, adding that more than 190 firms and factories have been sold to date, and that 179 remain.

At a conference on the impact of privatization on the Egyptian economy, Khattab described the firms that were sold off as "profitable."

"The current selling process comes at a time when local and international conditions are more difficult than at the beginning of the program in the early l990s," Khattab said.

The ad hoc privatization committee will meet next week to study several offers for selling some companies.

During the past 11 years, profits from public enterprises increased to L.E16.7 billion, compared with L.E1.5billion at the start of the program.

More than 180.000 out of a total work force of 350,000 were given early retirement, he said, adding that the management of state-run companies is in dire need of retraining to create a new generation of high-caliber managers.

"Privatization is the flagship of economic reform in Egypt to invigorate the national market in accordance with global market," he concluded.