The National Initiative for the Development of Egyptian Industry ‘Start’ was launched under the guidance of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi during the Egyptian family’s iftar banquet in April 2022.
The initiative aims to enhance the role of the private sector in localising the industry, reduce the import/export gap, retrain Egyptian workers and overcome obstacles facing insolvent factories.
The initiative rest on three axes: fostering major partnerships, industry support, and research, training and development.
The initiative has succeeded in fostering 64 investment partnerships to establish industrial entities with the participation of 23 foreign companies that are among the largest international ones in the industry. These projects are expected to contribute to both imports and increasing exports by $16 billion.
In this context, Start was able to localise 23 new industries for the first time in Egypt, represented in the manufacture of soda ash-silicon in the petrochemical sector, air conditioning and refrigeration compressors and the manufacture of central air conditioners, welded pipes, the manufacture of pharmaceutical raw materials and components of drinking water and sewage plants.
The initiative was also able to attract direct foreign investments and coordinate between investors and major international companies to sign joint manufacturing agreements, which guarantees that Egyptian products can compete globally.
Despite all the global challenges and difficulties related to currency, Start has been able to implement and open 4 projects with a total savings exceeding $500 million.
The initiative was also able to facilitate many procedures and overcome many obstacles, including the provision of industrial lands with a total 170,000 square meters and industrial units with a total of 12 units nationwide. This is in addition to co-ordination with banks to provide the necessary documents for the purchase of raw materials besides listing the requests of investors and transferring them to the concerned authorities. This move has resulted in many procedures that benefit the projects, such as issuing the golden license, expediting the completion of the automobile strategy.
Factories opened
Start Company opened a number of projects such as the Wheeler Pump Factory, where it started producing water pumps and supplying them for national projects, such as Toshka. The heavy loaders project was also inaugurated in cooperation with the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation, where 16 loaders were produced as a first stage.
The Fondi factory was opened in Sohag Governorate which is the first factory in Egypt and the Middle East to manufacture fondi. Work is also underway on expansions at the Cairo factory, and production lines have been requested, and industrial units are being provided for the project through the Start initiative.
More factories to be opened
Several factories are about to be officially opened, such as the Light Vehicle Engines Factory, which is considered the largest complex for light transportation means in Egypt and the Middle East, in cooperation with five technological partners from China and Italy. In addition, the Turkish gas safety valve factory, where the initiative was able to attract the Turkish investor Torash, which is one of the four largest manufacturers of gas safety valves in the world, as well as the Rajamic Company. Start initiative has succeeded in converting the importer to a manufacturer.
Localising strategic industries
Start was able to launch several national projects aimed at localising strategic industries for the first time in Egypt, some of which were proposed to be implemented during the past decades and were not implemented until Start was launched.
The Egyptian Soda Ash Company was launched in January 2023, and the project is one of the strategic projects to be established for the first time in Egypt, saving about $500 million annually from the import bill. The President of the Republic directed the speedy completion of studies on the project, given its importance. Work is also underway to finalize the final arrangements to launch the Silicon Project (Alamein for Silicon Products).
Work is underway on several projects, such as the Pharmaceutical Materials City project, which is the first in the manufacture of active drug materials in Egypt. This is in addition to MDF panels project in light of presidential directives to benefit from the state’s assets and integrate with the concerned authorities. Ministry of Supply was contacted to discuss ways of partnership and benefit from the Naga Hammadi factory affiliated with the Ministry besides the start chemical company in the industrial city of Gamasa.
Adhering to the President’s directives to upgrade the efficiency of the local product and target export to European countries, Start initiative started working on standard and conformity laboratories projects with the aim to endorse household appliances products internationally.
Within the framework of the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to prepare a national strategy for the production of green hydrogen as a source of clean energy, Start has contacted Total IRIN France, the French energy giant and the largest technology expert in the world in the field of green hydrogen.
Rescuing factories in trouble
With regard to the axis of supporting industry, Start has succeeded in solving and ending the problems of (848) factories, whether with regard to the factories listed on the initiative website or those located in the industrial zones nationwide.
The problems of the factories, which have been completely resolved, have varied between the need for support, whether through issuing operating licenses or financing, or the need to provide industrial lands, or problems related to utilities (electricity-gas-water-sewage) or a factory that needs to legalize its conditions for its existence on agricultural or residential land.
Training and economic empowerment
With regard to the training, research and development axis, Start launched several initiatives aimed at training and economic empowerment of the trainees, such as the ‘Start Life’ initiative in partnership with the Decent Life Foundation, which was implemented in the governorates of Sohag and Gharbia, and the ‘Your Equipment is Your Company’ initiative in partnership with Beko Heavy Equipment Company.
A training programme has been designed for the administrative level in factories in partnership with Shell Egypt and the National Training Academy, and coordination is underway with partners to implement the first phase for 26 trainees.
Within the framework of the project to develop technical education and vocational training institutions in accordance with international accreditation standards, field visits were carried out to nine training centres affiliated to the Department of Productive Efficiency and the Ministry of Manpower, and five centres were selected as a first stage for the project, with final specialisations determined for them.
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