Egypt’s state-owned Gosoor (Bridges) announced the inauguration of its first six branches abroad and the launch of its electronic catalogue for Egyptian exportable products that aim to promote the presence of Egyptian products abroad, especially in African countries.
This came in a ceremony held on Monday evening that was attended by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and a number of ministers, senior officials, and representatives of the private sector.
The Gosoor Initiative was launched under the directives of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in 2019.
The initiative follows the Holding Company for Maritime and Land Transport, which operates under the umbrella of the Ministry of Public Business Sector.
The initiative also includes the inauguration of 16 commercial centres to cover 40 countries around the world and is expected to be totally completed by the end of 2022, according to Gosoor’s website.
“Launching Gosoor is an important step among other steps that the government is working on currently to upgrade the Egyptian export system in order to keep pace with the growing economic potential of the Egyptian state, and, in doing so, allows Egyptian products to occupy the position they deserve in terms of geographical spread and total value,” Madbouly said during his speech at the launching ceremony.
The e-catalogue enables Egyptian companies — especially small ones — to register their exportable products for free, allowing workers in the company’s external branches to find the appropriate commercial partner for the needs of each factory, according to a previous statement by the Cabinet.
The government is keen, through the new business model of Gosoor, to provide support services to manufacturers from the private sector — especially medium- and small-sized companies — to access foreign markets, Madbouly asserted.
The PM also called on Egyptian producers and manufacturers to take advantage of this new initiative and to register the data of their companies and products on the catalogue, noting that registration is free of charge.
“In light of the exceptional and difficult circumstances the world is going through, reducing the gap in the trade balance and increasing the value of Egyptian exports have become a top priority for the state,” Madbouly said, asserting the importance of unifying and stimulating efforts to enhance Egyptian exports and raise their competitiveness among global markets.
Furthermore, the Egyptian state is interested in providing the necessary infrastructure to enable the private sector to play its role in investment and expansion in production and export within the framework of an ambitious goal to reach $100 billion annually, he added.
On Egyptian exports, he noted that the total value of Egyptian exports rose to more than $40 billion in 2021, compared to about $26.8 billion in 2020 — an increase of 49 percent.
In the same regard, he stated that Egyptian non-oil exports continued to achieve tangible positive indicators in the first quarter of this year, reaching $9.2 billion, compared to $7.7 billion during the same period in 2021 — a growth rate of about 20 percent.
At the same time, the premier indicated that the value of Egypt’s exports of non-oil goods to African countries recorded an increase of 38.5 percent, bringing it up to $5.4 billion in 2021, compared to 2020’s $3.9 billion.
Madbouly also noted that the government is preparing a strategy to develop Egyptian exports to Africa within the framework of implementing the presidential mandate to increase exports of Egyptian commodities to Africa to reach $10 billion by 2025, stressing the need to reform the Supreme Council for Export.
Switching gears to current global economic challenges, the PM stated that Egypt is facing a set of structural challenges, the first of which is the perseverance of the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, the second challenge is related to disruptions in global supply and supply chains, the third is the rise in global inflation rates at a pace not seen in decades, while the fourth and biggest challenge is the Russian-Ukrainian War that has severely damaged the global economy.
“Despite these challenges, the efforts of the Egyptian state to deal with global economic conditions are appreciated by international institutions and agencies, many of which expect the Egyptian economy to achieve strong growth rates, as the World Bank expects in the report it issued in June 2022 that the Egyptian economy will register a growth rate of 6.1 percent in FY2021/22, compared to 5.5 percent in the April and January reports of the same year,” he highlighted.
Moreover, he asserted that the Egyptian state aims to adopt policies based on empowering the private sector, enhancing its role in the Egyptian economy, and doubling its contribution to the country’s total investments to 65 percent — up from the current 30 percent — over the next three years.
