THE Egypt’s Vision 2030, the framework instrument of the country’s drive to achieve such sustainable development that would improve the quality of life for Egyptians and run in harmony with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims, inter alia, to build a balanced, knowledge-based and competitive economy with a diversified market and a stable macroeconomic environment capable of achieving sustainable, inclusive growth. And industry constitutes a basic pillar of the aspired economy, as much as agriculture, energy, transport, communications and health do. As a matter of fact, industry is the one sector the performance of which considerably defines the country’s production capability in terms of generating revenues, creating jobs and attracting investments. Achieving significant industrial development involves invigorating multiple factors that include expanding the production base, localising industries, consolidating feeding industries, bettering the qualification of human resources, keeping abreast with technological advances and ensuring the sustainability of production requirements.
Ensuring the sustainability of production requirements represents one of the key elements of the drive now under way to localise industries, modernise manufacturing technologies and upgrade the national product – three objectives which come in harmony with the parallel, massive effort Egypt has initiated over the past few years to renovate the national infrastructure and offer citizens quality public services. Highlighting the importance of production requirements within the framework of the state’s overall plan for the realisation of comprehensive and sustainable development, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli stressed in remarks during a meeting with senior government officials late last month that promoting the provision of production requirements implies making products sufficiently available to citizens, referring in this connection to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s directives to the government to make production requirements available to various factories. Along with the presence of the Cabinet ministers concerned, the representation of the Central Bank, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and the Industries Federation in the work of that meeting pointed to the keenness of the state on boosting coordination between all government departments and private sector industrial associations. The prime minister noted that the meeting was called to follow up on the progress of such coordination, especially in view of the state’s orientation to prioritise the file of production requirements.
Enhancing the national industrial potential in terms of production requirements is conducive to ensuring the sustainability of industrial development and growth since action in this direction involves the provision of the essential and multiple elements that constitute the base of production and boost the entire process of manufacturing the goods and commodities, especially including those of known great demand. Literature on industrial growth suggests that the sustainability of production requirements also implies many more advantages of direct relevance to industrial activity and growth. One such advantage is promotion of standardisation and specification, given that the availability of production requirements allows industrialists and planners time to keep improving products and elevate quality control. As such, the attention paid to production requirements ultimately serves the interests of consumers especially through offering them higher quality products. Secondly, action to sustain the availability of production requirements means in practical terms consolidating the manufacturing of local products which is a primal target of the drive to localise industries and bolster industrial growth. Thirdly, the attention being paid to production requirements naturally involves encouraging the private sector to expand its base of industrial production; hence Prime Minister Madbouli’s assertion during the April 28 meeting with senior officials that the coming stage would witness increasing government support for the private sector so that it can bolster its contribution to the growth of the national economy.
