Africa Working Group, which was formed upon decision of the Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade, has laid out the main features of Egypt’s strategic and action plan for promoting its export to African countries in the next five years.
The plan was announced at the meeting of the working group chaired by Khalid Abu El-Makarim, the head of Export Council of Egypt, held in the presence of Saied Abdullah, head of the Trade Agreements Sector. It focuses on doubling exports to 10 countries out of a total of 52 African countries as an initial stage of export promotion to be followed by a second group of African countries. “Attention has been paid to countries that have ports and Egyptian commercial offices as well as a genuine and high demand for Egyptian products upon selecting the first group of target African countries”, Abu El-Makarim said.
Abu El-Makarim added, “It was decided that the initial stage will also focus on the 5 biggest export sectors whose exports can achieve a big leap in the markets of the targeted ten countries; the sectors that have been selected are chemicals, construction materials and engineering industries, food products and medical supplies”. He continued, “The second focus of the plan will be renting a number of warehouses in the markets of the targeted countries in order to absorb what he called “Ready Goods”. The African market is a ready one and the reason behind the increase in the Chinese imports is their warehouse rented in all markets that China targets.
He noted, “The analysis of import and export structure of the African market revealed that Chinese exports represents about 24% of African imports, India ranked second with total imports amounting to 8%”. According to Abu El-Makarim, we have already rented a warehouse in Kenya this month and we plan to rent two warehouses in Tanzania and Uganda.
Abu El-Makarim continued, “The third focus of the plan will be shipping and transporting goods. Three international shipping companies specialized in shipping to Africa have been hired and every company will be responsible for shipping goods to three African countries”.
In the same context, Abu El-Makarim said, “It was decided to form a working group comprising representatives from the Trade Agreements Sector that will be responsible for negotiating with 3 domestic and international companies to create a consortium that will formulate a unified final offer for delivering the Egyptian exports to the African market.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to submit a list of banking services that can be provided to the Egyptian exporters, giving top priority to African-Egyptian imports. Abu El-Makarim went to add, “The group agreed to write and submit a letter to the Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade, emphasising the need to revitalise the role of Export Development Bank in a way that is consistent with its primary purpose.
