Khaled Abu Al-Makarem — the Chairperson of the Chemical and Fertilisers Export Council — said that the coming period is a very difficult time for Egyptian industries, which requires solidarity from everyone to overcome any challenges that may arise. Abu Al-Makarem explained that the coronavirus pandemic had its drawbacks as well as its advantages, as many factories and business results were affected by the pandemic, but on the other hand, Egypt did not shut down its economy as many countries did, which enabled it to break into new markets for the products of countries that closed their factories. This prompted some countries to search for a solution by importing needed goods from others, which was an opportunity for Egyptian chemical exports. During the launch of the eighth session of the Ezdhar programme to accelerate business for chemical and packaging industries on Saturday, Abu Al-Makarem said that the chemical industry is one of the largest industrial sectors that achieved a boom during FY2020/21. The sector's exports amounted to approximately $6.6bn in 2021, representing about 23% of Egypt's exports, with a growth rate of more than 46%, he added, noting that this is in large part due to the support provided by the Egyptian government to its exporters through a new export subsidy programme, shipping support to Africa, and the opening of new markets. Abu Al-Makarem also revealed that the chemical industry is the largest so far in terms of volume of exports and number of factories, with more than 20,000 industrial facilities, of which 13,480 are officially registered companies and about 8,000 are unregistered. He stressed that Ezdhar should avoid shortcomings suffered by previous training programmes, which either faced failure or non-continuity for many reasons that may be outside their control, whether due to changing laws, technology, or costs. This imposes the need for modernisation and development of training programmes to keep pace with changes of successive challenges facing establishments. "The present time is the most appropriate for development. The Ukrainian war has had negative repercussions on the entire world, which is reflected in the high level of inflation and abnormally high production costs that undoubtedly will cast a shadow on the purchasing power of individuals," he elaborated. "Moreover, the impact of these conditions on investment and the loss suffered by the global stock exchanges resulted in the exit of some investors from the stock market in fear of incurring losses on their investments. Accordingly, the Ezdhar programme has been given the burden of assisting companies in accelerating their business in these difficult circumstances."
