When production equals survival

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s support to local manufacturers is laudable, worthy of respect and should not fly under the radar.

This support comes as Egypt finds itself obliged to reorient itself in ways that suit changes happening, not only inside it, but also around the world.

Strains on national financial resources from current international conditions, ones that have caused commodity prices to spike dramatically and thrown the international supply chain into confusion make production and exportation our sole option, if we want to survive as a nation.

Increasing our industrial and agricultural production, refining this production, covering the needs of the local market, and exporting surpluses are no longer a choice. They are a must.

Pressures on Egypt’s foreign currency reserves have never been that intense.

These pressures are induced by our heavy dependence on imports, whether these are of food or industrial products and equipment.

The same dependence is deeply affecting people on the streets here because the slightest rise in the exchange rate of foreign currencies, especially the US dollar, against the Egyptian pound, reverberates across the shelves nationwide, whether they are of supermarkets or outlets selling all other products.

To reverse this, we have to stop depending on things coming from abroad and there is only one way to do this: production.

We have to produce what we use and eat or we will be economically wiped off the map and this is not a joking matter.

President Sisi said at the opening of the 1st International Manufacturing Convention & Exhibition on Saturday that the same international conditions can be turned into an opportunity and he is right.

Egypt has whatever it takes to be an industrial hub, one that satisfies the needs of its own market and boosts the international supply chain.

The president’s keenness on pushing the industrial sector forward was manifested in his suggestion that he sets up an office in the presidency to solve the problems of and offer licenses to industrial investors.