TRADE Project Launched to Support Engineering SMEs in Egypt
The five-year project seeks to strengthen Egyptian SMEs’ competitiveness abroad and improve the internal institutional environment.
In support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the Engineering Export Council of Egypt (EECE) has met with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to launch the Trade Reform and Development in Egypt (TRADE) project.
The project aims to increase SMEs’ exports in some industrial sectors, primarily across engineering industries, in order to overcome obstacles faced by exporting companies in competitiveness. A key feature of the meeting was its focus on tackling issues of policy development related to trade and investment in Egypt.
Starting in 2021, the TRADE project is to be implemented over a five-year period and will focus on three main components: improving the export capabilities of SMEs, developing trade by building capacities of trade-supporting institutions such as export councils, and strengthening the institutional environment to produce better investment policies.
Furthermore, the plan will aid beneficiary companies to obtain access to services, such as granting SMEs ‘quality certificates’ to boost their penetration into African markets, the provision of training grants to increase exports to all markets, and increasing capabilities of small companies to refine the quality of exported products.
