Egypt is due to inaugurate the first industrial complex in Fayyoum Governorate soon as part of an initiative ‘Your Work is in Your Village’.
As the name suggests, the aim is to provide suitable work opportunities for youth and women in rural areas.
This month, Governor of Fayoum Mohamed el-Ansary, Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Sharaawy and Minister of Planning and Economic Development Dr Hala el-Saeed witnessed the contract signing for the establishment of this industrial complex.
‘Your Work is in Your Village’ initiative started in June last year when Minister of Local Development and president of the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI) signed a cooperation protocol to implement the initiative by allocating the necessary plots of land in a number of villages across different Egyptian governorates to set up industrial complexes that create jobs for village dwellers.
The first phase of the initiative covers four governorates, namely Ismailia, Menoufiya, Fayyoum and Minya. Each industrial complex that will include small, medium and micro projects to feed major projects in cooperation with the private sector. The industries and activities will be divided in each region of the villages based on the raw materials produced, labour intensity and the possibility of marketing products to the region.
The Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy said his ministry has plans for 384 industrial complexes, 650 medium projects and 2,000 small enterprises under the initiative, providing 330,000 direct job opportunities.
The minister added that the state aims within the framework of the structural reforms programme to increase the share of SMEs from the total number of employees from 51 percent in 2020 to 60 percent in 2024, as well as increasing the percentage of workers in the sector from 12.5 percent in 2020 to between 18-20 percent in 2024.
‘Your Work is in Your Village’ is part of the ‘Decent Life’ initiative launched by President Abdel-Fattah el Sisi in 2019 to improve standards of living for the most deprived areas in rural Egypt.
Over the past few weeks, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, in coordination with the Ministry of Local Development, carried out training for 100,000 Egyptians in accordance with the initiative to improve their career paths, whether in global or local freelance platforms.
Mahmoud Rabei, who is an expert in local administration, told this newspaper: “The ‘Village Work’ initiative will build a foundation for SMEs and develop industry in Egyptian villages as part of a giant comprehensive project for the development of the countryside.”
“Each village will consequently find a fair share of various services in infrastructure, public services, and economic projects,” Rabei said.
“This will contribute to increasing the productivity of villages, maximising
local production, and nurturing a new generation of entrepreneurs, which
will certainly have an impact on the decline in internal migration
rates from rural to urban areas.
“For the initiative to succeed, governors have a very important role in terms of direct supervision of projects to overcome all obstacles related to construction, operation and the issuance of the required licenses in a way that helps increase the productivity of villages and maximise the value of local products.
“The rate of internal migration from the countryside to the cities has reached 55 percent, according to government figures.
“Although villagers migrate to urban areas looking for formal sector jobs, which often pay higher, the sector only hires a small portion of migrants, while the rest go to the informal sector absorbing non-skilled labor,” Rabei explained.
He emphasized the importance of this initiative in helping youth living in villages to get jobs in different industries without having to migrate to major cities or resort the informal sector as the only option.
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