Hisham Tawfik, the Egyptian Minister of the Public Business Sector announced that from next year, Egypt will see natural gas-powered buses on its road. Tawfik also announced that the production of the first fleet will begin sometime during the middle of 2022. Around 70 percent of the materials used in the manufacturing of the buses are going to be sourced locally and will be supported by various other Egyptian companies.
It targeted to start production in mid-2022 with an annual capacity of 250 buses, with a local component of more than 60 percent. This plan is in line with the state’s plan to deepen and localize the natural gas buses industry to the Egyptian market.
Talking about spinning and weaving in Egypt, Tawfik said that the cost of the project developing the spinning and weaving industry amounts to LE21 billion, out of which LE7 billion will go behind the construction of 65 buildings and LE9.5 billion is allocated for machines. The rest of the funds are for training, capital and marketing.
The minister also added the sector has reached a construction rate of 60 percent and will start installing the machines from next April. He also noted that there is a cooperation between the ministries of agriculture, trade and industry to experiment in cultivating short-staple cotton in Egypt. This experiment was successful in East Owainat and with high productivity.
Tawfik also pointed out that the quality of the short-staple cotton grown in Egypt is high and the state was importing short-staple cotton worth LE2 billion annually, stressing that the cultivation of short-staple cotton in Egypt provides hard currency for the country.