Egypt has attracted five global companies to the local home appliances sector, including three Chinese companies, one Turkish, and one European company, according to the Chairperson of the Engineering Export Council of Egypt (EEC), Sherif El-Sayad. He said this development will contribute to the growth of Egyptian exports. To further enhance this growth, all production sectors must focus on programs to attract investors. El-Sayad stressed the need to help companies operating in the local market obtain conformity certificates, given the new standards in most of Egypt's target export markets. This statement was made during the GOEIC's first Annual Forum titled "Shifting Mindsets to Unlock Export Potential," organized by the General Organization for Export and Import Control (GOEIC), under the auspices of the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade and in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). El-Sayad added that obtaining product conformity certificates starts with qualifying the product in Egypt, followed by sending the product for testing and finally receiving the conformity certificate. These stages are costly, which places a burden on exporters and raises costs, especially for small companies. He revealed that the EEC worked on securing grants and support for small companies to obtain conformity certificates at lower costs, aiming to boost engineering exports. El-Sayad confirmed that the council is continuing its efforts in the field of national accreditation laboratories for issuing conformity certificates for engineering industries through the Egyptian private sector following the international standard ISO 17025. He noted that having an Egyptian accreditation laboratory will facilitate the export process for the engineering sector. El-Sayad also pointed out that 50% of production raw materials in many engineering sectors are imported. Therefore, there needs to be a strong program to attract investments in the components, raw materials, and needs of the engineering industrial sectors to deepen local manufacturing.
