logo
Egypt mulls converting Helwan Iron and Steel site into textile complex

Egypt mulls converting Helwan Iron and Steel site into textile complex

Fibre2Fashion13 hours ago
Pic: Adobe Stock Insights Egypt is mulling over converting the Helwan Iron and Steel Company site into a major textile and garment industry complex to attract foreign investment and boost local value-addition, deputy prime minister for industrial development and minister of industry and transport Kamel Al-Wazir recently said.
Due to substantial losses, the government decided to liquidate the company in January 2021. Egypt is mulling over converting the Helwan Iron and Steel Company site into a major textile and garment industry complex to attract foreign investment and boost local value-addition, deputy prime minister for industrial development and minister of industry and transport Kamel Al-Wazir recently said.
The Helwan Iron and Steel Company was founded in 1954. Due to substantial losses, the Egyptian government decided to liquidate the company in January 2021.
Egypt is mulling over converting the Helwan Iron and Steel Company site into a major textile and garment industry complex to attract foreign investment and boost local value-addition, deputy prime minister for industrial development and minister of industry and transport Kamel Al-Wazir recently said. Due to substantial losses, the government decided to liquidate the company in January 2021.
Al-Wazir instructed ministry officials to strengthen integration across industrial chains and deepen complementary industries for the garment sector to reduce the raw material import bill.
He said this while visiting Technotex Factory, part of El-Nile Group, located in the Second Industrial Zone in 15th of May City.
Technotex currently employs 5,000 workers and plans to expand its workforce to 8,000 and increase output to 14.7 million pieces annually by 2026, raising export revenues to EGP 4.7 billion, Egyptian media outlets reported citing a statement from the cabinet.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Egypt mulls converting Helwan Iron and Steel site into textile complex
Egypt mulls converting Helwan Iron and Steel site into textile complex

Fibre2Fashion

time13 hours ago

  • Fibre2Fashion

Egypt mulls converting Helwan Iron and Steel site into textile complex

Pic: Adobe Stock Insights Egypt is mulling over converting the Helwan Iron and Steel Company site into a major textile and garment industry complex to attract foreign investment and boost local value-addition, deputy prime minister for industrial development and minister of industry and transport Kamel Al-Wazir recently said. Due to substantial losses, the government decided to liquidate the company in January 2021. Egypt is mulling over converting the Helwan Iron and Steel Company site into a major textile and garment industry complex to attract foreign investment and boost local value-addition, deputy prime minister for industrial development and minister of industry and transport Kamel Al-Wazir recently said. The Helwan Iron and Steel Company was founded in 1954. Due to substantial losses, the Egyptian government decided to liquidate the company in January 2021. Egypt is mulling over converting the Helwan Iron and Steel Company site into a major textile and garment industry complex to attract foreign investment and boost local value-addition, deputy prime minister for industrial development and minister of industry and transport Kamel Al-Wazir recently said. Due to substantial losses, the government decided to liquidate the company in January 2021. Al-Wazir instructed ministry officials to strengthen integration across industrial chains and deepen complementary industries for the garment sector to reduce the raw material import bill. He said this while visiting Technotex Factory, part of El-Nile Group, located in the Second Industrial Zone in 15th of May City. Technotex currently employs 5,000 workers and plans to expand its workforce to 8,000 and increase output to 14.7 million pieces annually by 2026, raising export revenues to EGP 4.7 billion, Egyptian media outlets reported citing a statement from the cabinet. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

The losers of the new Middle East
The losers of the new Middle East

Mint

timea day ago

  • Mint

The losers of the new Middle East

EIGHT YEARS ago Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi was on centre stage. Donald Trump gave the Egyptian dictator a warm welcome at the White House in April 2017. A few weeks later, when Mr Trump visited Riyadh, the Saudis invited Mr Sisi to join. The former general, who seized power in a coup in 2013, took pride of place alongside the American president and the Saudi king at the launch of a counter-terrorism centre. Yet no one bothered to summon him when Mr Trump returned to Riyadh this May. Gulf rulers were keen to talk to the American president about their vision for the Middle East, and Mr Sisi did not fit into those plans. Instead he flew to Baghdad for a desultory Arab League summit, where he was one of only five heads of state to attend (most members of the 22-country club sent mere ministers). Read all our coverage of the war in the Middle East This is a moment of transition in the Middle East. Iran is weakened. New governments in Syria and Lebanon want to keep it that way. Gulf monarchs are keen on detente with both Iran and Turkey, their regional rivals. Mr Trump talks hopefully of a 'bright new day", a Middle East focused on commerce rather than conflict. The region is a rough place for optimists: this moment may not last. Whether or not it does, it shows how the Middle East has already changed. Rich and seemingly stable, the Gulf states are at the hub of things, while some countries that were once influential are now just onlookers. At the top of that list is Egypt, and Mr Sisi has himself to blame. He has wrecked the Egyptian economy, running up unsustainable public debts (around 90% of GDP) to pay for vanity projects and refusing the common-sense reforms that might boost a stagnant private sector. That has left Egypt reliant on bail-outs. It has received at least $45bn in aid from Gulf states since 2013, according to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank. It is also the IMF's third-biggest debtor. But now it has competition. Lebanon will need at least $7bn to rebuild after last year's war with Israel. Syria will need many times more. At least for now, both countries seem a better investment than Egypt. Their governments are promising serious economic and political reform. Syria's interim government wants to privatise state-run firms and woo foreign investors. Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, wants to disarm Hizbullah, a powerful Iranian-backed militia. Aid to those countries might help them achieve those goals; aid to Egypt merely buys time until its next financial crisis. Iraq finds itself sidelined too. Iran has lost its closest state ally (the Assad regime in Syria) and its strongest proxy militia (Hizbullah). That leaves it desperate to preserve its influence in Iraq, where it supports an array of armed groups. Some officials in the Gulf describe Iraq as a lost cause: the militias are too strong and too interwoven with the state to be uprooted. Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria's new president, could not even attend the Arab League summit in Baghdad because of threats from pro-Iranian militias. No matter: he flew to Riyadh instead, where he met Mr Trump and secured a promise that America would lift its sanctions. The Saudis are keen to support Mr Sharaa in part because a strong Syria would be a bulwark against Iranian influence. 'Syria used to help balance Iraq," muses one Saudi official, referring to a time when the Assad regime was a rival of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship in Iraq. 'Maybe it can play that role again," this time with Iran. The stateless Palestinians have been at the heart of Arab affairs since 1948. But there is reason to think that they too are losing their centrality. Mahmoud Abbas, the eternal Palestinian president, has done nothing to clean up his corrupt administration in the occupied West Bank. Hamas offers an even bleaker model in Gaza: it has let Israel destroy the enclave rather than cede power. Arab leaders still pay lip service to the Palestinian cause. In practice, though, they are trying to diminish its influence. Mr Aoun wants to disarm the Palestinian militias in Lebanon's refugee camps (and some members of Hizbullah have signalled their assent). The new Syrian government has pledged to do the same. There is serious talk in both countries about peace with Israel: not full normalisation, but at least an end to decades of conflict. All of this makes for a remarkable turnabout. A year ago Lebanon and Syria seemed like lost causes as well. The former was dominated by Hizbullah and at war with Israel; its economy was still reeling from a financial crisis that shrank its GDP by 40%. The latter was a narco-state still in the grips of a resilient-looking Assad regime. Now Gulf states and America see them as the heart of a more prosperous Middle East. To stay that way, their governments will have to deliver results. After all, many of Mr Sisi's Arab allies had high hopes for him too a decade ago. Those hopes were dashed. For decades, the Middle East was divided along ideological lines. Perhaps now the split is between governments that can meet their promises and those that cannot. Sign up to the Middle East Dispatch, a weekly newsletter that keeps you in the loop on a fascinating, complex and consequential part of the world.

Kuwait to replace all foreign judges with citizens by 2030 in sweeping workforce nationalization
Kuwait to replace all foreign judges with citizens by 2030 in sweeping workforce nationalization

Time of India

time2 days ago

  • Time of India

Kuwait to replace all foreign judges with citizens by 2030 in sweeping workforce nationalization

Justice Ministry commits to full Kuwaitization of judicial staff by 2030/Image: File Kuwait's Minister of Justice, Counsellor Nasser Al-Sumait, has confirmed that the country's judiciary will be fully 'Kuwaitized' by 2030, meaning all judicial positions, currently sometimes held by foreign workers will be occupied by qualified Kuwaiti nationals. This initiative forms a core pillar of sweeping reforms to strengthen local talent, empower national professionals, and modernize the legal sector. TL;DR: Kuwait's judiciary aims to be staffed entirely by citizens by 2030 as part of 'Kuwaitization.' The transition is underway across judicial departments, with Legislative reforms also in motion to boost independence and efficiency. Private and public sectors, especially oil and technical fields, are undergoing similar national workforce integration , including strict recruitment and job protection rules. Details of the judicial Kuwaitization drive Minister Al-Sumait states that procedures are already advancing within all judicial departments to replace expatriate judges and staff with skilled Kuwaiti professionals as per a report by People Matters. 'The matter has been decided, and we are committed to achieving 100% Kuwaitization by 2030,' he declared, underlining the determination behind the plan. The Ministry of Justice is coordinating closely to ensure that all appointments and promotions prioritize quality, training, and readiness among Kuwaiti candidates. Coupled with the ambitious staffing goal, the Judicial Independence Law is under legislative review intended to secure the judiciary's autonomy, improve administrative frameworks, and align national structures with contemporary legal best practices. The approach emphasizes not just nationalization, but also efficiency, capability, and global alignment. Kuwaitization across sectors The Judiciary initiative follows notable progress in other vital sectors. Kuwait's oil industry, already Kuwaitized in key engineering and technical roles serves as a model. Local workforce integration in oil is supported by the Manpower Contractors Kuwaitization Initiative (begun in 2002), offering fair wages, benefits, and stable employment for nationals. As of 2024, the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and subsidiaries have reportedly reached 100% national staffing in top positions, with ongoing efforts to remove barriers for Kuwaitis, ensure job continuity, and phase out reliance on foreign staff. Tightened recruitment for technical & professional roles The Public Authority for Manpower has also introduced new, stricter requirements for expatriates seeking technical posts, such as medicine, engineering, law, education, accounting, and finance. All candidates must now pass an online professional proficiency test and undergo thorough academic and work experience verification, typically three to five years via official bodies and Kuwaiti embassies abroad. For existing foreign workers and those switching sectors, changes in job titles or academic records are tightly regulated to ensure only appropriately qualified staff remain. Any roles involving security screening require explicit clearance from the Authority before obtaining Ministry of Interior approval, reinforcing comprehensive compliance and oversight. Kuwait's sweeping Kuwaitization campaign in the judiciary and beyond seeks to empower Kuwaiti nationals, modernize the labour landscape, and drive sustainable long-term development. Legislative changes, stricter recruitment, and a focus on homegrown talent reflect a national strategy for competitive, capable, and independent institutions across the board. FAQ 1. What does Kuwaitization mean in the judiciary context? It means that by 2030, all judicial positions currently held by expatriates will be replaced by qualified Kuwaiti nationals. 2. Is the judiciary Kuwaitization process already underway? Yes, the Ministry of Justice is actively implementing the transition across judicial departments. 3. What are some legislative reforms accompanying the Kuwaitization plan? The Judicial Independence Law is under review to strengthen the judiciary's autonomy, efficiency, and alignment with modern legal frameworks. 4. Are Kuwaitization efforts limited to the judiciary? No, Kuwaitization is also advancing strongly in sectors like oil, engineering, medicine, and finance, with stricter recruitment and qualification rules for expatriates. 5. What new requirements must expatriates meet for technical jobs in Kuwait? Candidates must pass online proficiency tests and undergo rigorous verification of academic credentials and work experience through official authorities.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store