Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid addressed an AmCham luncheon held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on May 15. The minister spoke about the government’s record of economic achievements, while assessing the many challenges that lie ahead.

He began by recalling his first speech delivered to AmCham, in September 2004. At the time, he stated: “Egypt will transform its industry and export sectors to become dynamically competitive, sustainable and globally integrated. Egyptian industry and exports will be key growth engines to the Egyptian economy.”

Rachid said the ministry had aimed to achieve annual export growth of 17 percent and annual industrial growth of 6 percent. “Today, I can share with you that what has happened in the last two and a half years has exceeded even my own expectations.” Last year, export growth was 46 percent and industrial growth reached 7 percent, he said. Investment in industry also rose, from $5.6 billion in 2004 to $12.7 billion in 2005 and $16.4 billion in 2006. Through the first six months of 2007, that figure has already reached $18 billion, and Rachid said he thinks it could reach $32 billion by the end of the year.

With the appointment of the current cabinet of ministries in July 2004, the Government of Egypt has revived a stalled economic reform program which was initially introduced in 1991. As a result, the cabinet economic team has simplified and reduced tariffs and taxes, improved the transparency of the national budget, revived stalled privatizations of public enterprises, and adopted policies to improve competitiveness. Consequently a moderate revival started in 2004 with a 4.1% GDP growth rate, followed by a very dynamic and sustained economic expansion recording a rate of more than 7% for 2007 and 2008, as the FMI forcasts.