CAIRO, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Egypt is planning on a factory to produce local pens, pencils and erasers with an investment of 5 million U.S. dollars in cooperation with a leading foreign company in the field, official said on Thursday.
Egyptian Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil said the initial studies on the project had been finished by a local stationery company, adding that the project will be carried out before the end of 2017.
He made the remarks following a meeting with Egypt's Samir & Aly Stationery Houses & Co., the project's investor.
With 20 million students out of the country's 94-million population, Egypt imports over 80 percent of its stationery needs, mostly from China.
The prices of pens, pencils, erasers and suchlike office tools have doubled over the past year due to the devaluation of the Egyptian pound in late 2016 that at least doubled the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the local currency.
For his part, Walid Shatla, head of Samir & Aly Stationery Houses & Co., said that the new project reflects the trade ministry's plan to turn commercial companies into manufacturers to help replace imported products with local ones.
The project will cover a large part of the local market's needs and will also enable export to other markets in African, Arab and Middle Eastern countries, said Shatla, adding that the project will provide more than 500 job opportunities.
The move is a step towards increasing local production as part of the country's means of economic reform to contain growing budget deficit, increasing inflation rate and rising foreign and domestic debts.
