The minister of public business sector talks about the current business situation in the economics department seminar
Edited by: Adham Nasreldine and Mariam Elsafty

The Arab Republic of Egypt is witnessing today major reforms in many fields all over the country, and one of the most prominent topics that has sparked a major controversy recently was the file of companies and public factories, and the state plan to face the successive fall of many holding companies, which is considered to be such an important topic that has the concern of many Egyptians who would like to know the recent developments in such topics.

And so, the Economics department at faculty of economics and political science and under the supervision of professor and doctor Mohamed Othman Elkosht, the president of Cairo university, and professor and doctor Mahmoud EL-saeed, the dean of the faculty, both have approved this scientific seminar only exclusive for the economics department, on Monday, 5th of April, 2021, exactly on 12 p.m., under the title of “Current and future conditions for large companies in the public business sector”. In the presence of the Minister of Business “Minister Hisham Anwar Tawfiq". The seminar was run by professor and Doctor Heba Nassar, in addition to the presence of many economics professors, led by Dr and Professor Sami Al Sayed and Dr and Professor Hala Abu Ali and Dr and professor Alia al-Mahdi.

The seminar began by Dr. Alia Al-Mahdi presenting with a brief overview of the minister's career, and then the word was passed to Dr. Mahmoud al-Saeed, Dean of the College, who welcomed His Excellency the Minister, and then Dr. Heba Nassar began running the session and questions were asked to his Excellency the Minister regarding the sale of iron and steel company and why the company was not resettled elsewhere at a lower cost, as well as with regard to aluminum company and spinning and weaving companies and all current and future conditions around them.

His Excellency the Minister began his talk by expressing his admiration for this seminar, and in the regard to answering the iron industry question in Egypt, he said that the ministry has no intention for manufacturing iron and steel as what concerns the country now is the presence of manufacturing iron and huge amount of raw materials and doubling the production. He clarified that the iron and steel company has been suffering losses for years; the previous year's revenue swelled to about 1.5 billion pounds, while the operating cost exceeded 9 billion pounds, so it made sense to liquidate the iron and steel company. His Excellency talked about the ministry has not found a solution except to offer shares from the company to local and foreign companies. Nine companies were really interested and five companies withdrew the terms booklets. The ministry's goal is to raise the company's productivity and return the company to the right way, but all the offers submitted were not in line with the ministry's vision to correct the company's path, so all the offers submitted were rejected and an official decision was taken to close the factories. 

Then he went on to talk about the aluminum and he viewed the history of that company, how it works, and its way of production. And also talked about a project aims to reduce the used energy in the company and depend more on cheaper alternatives which don’t waste energy. Speaking of the path of the aluminum company, he talked about how old were the aluminum factories, most of which date back to the 1980s and have dilapidated machinery and consume electricity in a large way and with outdated technology called cells producing aluminum. The company has faced problems of successive rise in electricity prices and the government has agreed to reduce the price of electricity in its dealings with the company, and added his Excellency finally in this regard that the company faces great challenges and fierce competition from international companies. The ministry has therefore provided a new technology that is supposed to provide 13% of electricity and takes electricity 40% of the cost of the product, which is a high number. The ministry cooperates with a foreign consultant to provide new technology through which it is possible to extinguish some of the old cells and thus produce more than 325 thousand tons which are now produced in the new factory and consume less energy and thus achieve profitability. there is another project carried out by the ministry based on the manufacture of aluminum parts in the car tire and that is because Egypt has the capacity to produce about sixty thousand cars produced now in eleven factories and the project aims to increase the local component through the production of those aluminum parts (about 3% of the price of the car in them only) and this issue is under investigation now. As for his answer to the points of the yarn and textile factories, His Excellency stated that the ministry was directly and fully responsible for the deterioration of the work of shops and cotton-based industries in general, and added that the products issued by these stores became of absolutely bad quality and that the state continues to sell at lower prices than normal as a result of continuous pollution in the shops and thus the loss of many consumers. Therefore, the ministry, under his leadership, is seeking full reform in the system as a whole, and on the part of His Excellency stated that there is a plan to solve four million meters of long-length cotton by 2020 using modern technology and work to raise the quality of products, and he has revealed the ministry's plan in renewing machines in the shops because these machines are old and some of them go back to 1875, which of course causes major problems in production and this is unlike the machines in the yarn factories which are a little more recent , He stated that the Ministry is seeking to increase the efficiency of the final products from yarns, fabrics and others to access the export of finished products instead of exporting raw materials and re-purchasing them from the producers again, and his Excellency's talk regarding factories and public companies ended and the discussion was opened, and by elite representatives, a question was asked regarding the fate of workers in the factories that were closed and how the ministry dealt with them. The response came from his Excellency the Minister that the ministry has divided the workers in these factories into two groups, a group of those who are able to work to and have other jobs who benefit from them with full salaries paid throughout their exclusion period, and a second group comprising the elderly and those who will go out in early pensions with the appropriate compensation paid to them without compromising the rights of any worker in these factories and closed companies.

The Seminar ended with Dr. Heba Nassar thanking His Excellency the Minister of Business Hisham Tawfiq for accepting the invitation and the honorable and fruitful presence, wishing him more achievements and hard work in what is coming.

For our part, we elite editors have drawn our attention to the good organization and the questions about which The Seminar was asked to his Excellency the Minister, which came comprehensive and good, and we were also impressed by the management of the dialogue by the Organization of Seminar as Dr. Heba Nassar chose the right time to ask questions to his Excellency the Minister and left him the right amount of time to clarify the reasons. Overall it was a useful and interesting scientific seminar