Egypt moves to deepen local manufacturing, cut textile imports
Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development and Minister of Industry and Transport, Kamel Al-Wazir, held a meeting with Minister of Public Enterprises Sector Mohamed El-Shimy and a group of manufacturers from the spinning, textiles, ready-made garments, and home furnishings industries to discuss ways to deepen local manufacturing and reduce Egypt’s import bill.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the Ready-Made Garments and Textiles Chamber, the Apparel Export Council, as well as senior officials from the Ministries of Industry and Public Enterprises Sector.
At the outset, Al-Wazir said the meeting marked the first in a series of regular consultations aimed at reviewing and developing the spinning, weaving, and ready-made garments sector, particularly in light of strong global demand for establishing garment factories in Egypt.
He stressed the importance of deepening all stages of the textile value chain, including ginning, spinning, finishing, dyeing, and weaving, especially given the availability of key raw materials, most notably cotton and flax.
Al-Wazir noted that the Ministry of Industry is fully prepared to provide all forms of support to serious investors seeking to establish spinning and textile factories, with the objective of meeting the needs of local manufacturers, reducing imports, and addressing supply-chain gaps in the ready-made garments and home furnishings sectors.
He also underscored the importance of producing a comprehensive range of yarns—including cotton, flax, polyester, and wool—and urged local manufacturers to engage global brands sourcing garments from Egypt to allocate part of their production to the domestic market.
During the meeting, participants reviewed key challenges facing the spinning and textile industry, including the high capital costs of establishing spinning factories relative to returns, restrictions on approved countries of origin for imported cotton yarns, insufficient local yarn production to meet demand, the decline in cultivated cotton areas, and shortages of domestic expertise in yarn manufacturing.
Discussions also highlighted the difficulty some local textile and garment factories face in competing with imported products that are not subject to the same level of regulatory oversight in terms of quality standards and pricing.
Al-Wazir stated that the Ministry of Industry, in coordination with relevant authorities and the Federation of Egyptian Industries, has formed a committee to address customs evasion and curb practices that harm local industry. He said the committee will intensify its efforts in the coming period to ensure that spinning, textile, and garment factories import raw materials and production inputs strictly in line with their actual production capacities.
He further emphasised the need to strengthen monitoring across all factories, particularly those operating in free zones or relying on temporarily admitted imports intended for re-export.
The minister also highlighted the importance of effective private-sector participation in partnerships with state-owned companies to achieve industrial integration. He explained that such partnerships would leverage available land, facilities, machinery, and infrastructure within public-sector entities, while benefiting from the private sector’s operational efficiency and management expertise through joint financing models that create mutual value.
In addition, Al-Wazir stressed the need to scale up investment in the petrochemical sector to reduce reliance on imported polyester. He instructed the Industrial Development Authority to require investors seeking licences for ready-made garment factories to incorporate spinning and textile manufacturing components within their projects to ensure full industrial integration.
For his part, Minister of Public Enterprises Sector Mohamed El-Shimy emphasised the importance of establishing a comprehensive governance framework for cotton trading and circulation to meet Egypt’s yarn requirements. He called for encouraging factories and companies to expand yarn and textile manufacturing and increase investment to maximise value addition.
El-Shimy also affirmed the Ministry’s readiness to open its specialised spinning and textile factories—across seven affiliated companies—to partnerships with the private sector, noting that such cooperation would help meet domestic market demand, boost exports, and support the long-term development of Egypt’s textile industry.
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