By Mahmoud Salah El-Din and Ibrahim El-Masry
The Holding Company for Spinning and Weaving (HCSW) plans to hold an urgent meeting to discuss the plan for the development of its subsidiary companies. The proposed plan will be submitted to the Rescuing Committee of Spinning and Weaving Industry (RCSWI), which has recently appointed a new board under the orders of Prime Minister Hesham Qandil. The new board would include the Ministers of Industry, Trade and Manpower, the President of HCSW and the Director of the General Syndicate for Spinning and Weaving (GSSW).
An informed official at the HCSW said the plan includes transferring the cotton ginning mills and factories outside residential areas to one of the new industrial zones. The HCSW will offer the old space for sale to benefit from its high price. The money will be used to settle debts owed to the National Investment Bank (NIB) and also to found new advanced factories.
Additionally, the plan calls for confronting violations such as smuggling and charging protective taxes on imported goods in order to increase demand for domestic products.
Minister of Manpower, Khaled El Azhary, plans on holding another meeting next week for laying out a detailed strategy to remove obstacles facing the industry and put an end the problems of its employees.
The President of the GSSW, Abdul Fattah Ibrahim, said the RCSW would examine the report after the RCSWI’s first meeting. The report reviews the approved governmental strategy for the industry, beginning with supporting farmers and expanding medium and short-staple cottons growing to starting new investments for upgrading factories of both the public and the private sectors. Additionally, the report highlights the importance of recruiting the required skilled labour.
The joint committee of the GSSW and RCSW recently completed a study to raise EGP 5 billion, Ibrahim added. The funds will be put together by exploiting a number of assets and negotiating a settlement with the NIB regarding the EGP 3 billion of debt, which represents the compound interest on a previous loan in the amount of EGP 348 million.
