Supply Min. Announces Important Decisions after HoR’s Economic Session

The Ministry of Supply has taken important decisions during a session of the Economic Committee of House of Representatives (HoR).

The Committee discussed the Presidential Decision No. 404 of 2020 regarding approval of the tripartite partnership agreement to implement the technical assistance program for the development of wholesale trade in foodstuff markets between Egypt, Semaris and the Agency French Development and Site on March 30, 2020. Implementation of wholesale market projects will take 2 to 3 years.

According to the agreement, the French Development Agency will provide Semaris, "as the technical partner," a financial contribution up to a maximum of 700,000 euros for the implementation of the project. The government also aims to establish commodity exchange projects.

Dr. Ali Al-Moselhy, Minister of Supply and Internal Trade, said that the establishment of the commodity exchange will be announced before the end of this month.

Al-Moselhy pointed out that the aim of establishing a commodity exchange is to achieve more transparency in the process of offering and selling commodities.

Al-Moselhy emphasized that this step is a shift in the concept of internal trade, warning that lack of disclosure, lack of transparency and accurate information is the main reason for the variation in commodity prices from one place to another.

The minister made these statements during the meeting of the Economic Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives (HoR), today, headed by Eng. Ahmed Samir.

Regarding the commodity stock exchange law, the minister explained that stock exchange laws have been reviewed in different countries and the law has been drafted, and the bill of the Egyptian Commodity Exchange will be one of the first laws that will be submitted in the next session of HoR.

The minister pointed out that the legal framework has been reviewed by the Council of Ministers, explaining that he will proceed with the administrative steps until the law is issued.

He explained that brokers and middlemen will be members of the Stock Exchange, revealing that for the first time his ministry is issuing specifications for stores, construction and sanitary safeguards.

He also stressed the importance of completing the auditing of the databases of those who deserve subsides so that the ministry can give the most in need a greater share of the subsides.

It is worthy to note that the "Gam'eety " project is one of the most important projects implemented by the ministry during the recent period. This project has added 6000 new sales outlets to the system in addition to 1300 sales outlets for wholesale companies.

The Ministry has completed the implementation of the second phase of "Gam'eety" and aims to complete the third phase of it before the end of this month.

The Ministry said that switching to restricted cash support in subsidizing a loaf of flat bread is the best solution to eradicating all methods of manipulation and closing the doors of illegal business in the circulation of wheat, mixing it, grinding flour and bakeries.

The Ministry continues support of medical masks on the ration cards, in order to help citizens provide medical masks at reasonable prices to confront the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Ministry was keen to offer a new type of masks at a price of EGP 6 to the consumer, in addition to the currently available price of EGP 8.5 , with the aim of supplying other types of masks to be spent on ration cards.

Egypt’s internal trade is of great importance, as it represents 18.5%; it is the second largest sector in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In the same context, Al-Moselhy stressed that according to the general orientation of the political leadership, silos have been added to store wheat. The Emirati Silos Project can store 3 million tons of wheat. The project will save and preserved the quality of wheat.

It is worthy to note that Egypt’s local consumption of wheat amounts to 9.6 million tons annually, of which 45% are local wheat and about 55% are imported wheat.

On his part, Samir confirmed that the Ministry of Supply succeeded in managing the Corona crisis and there was no shortage of strategic goods.

Samir said that Dr. Ali Moselhy is not far from this committee, and everyone knows the extent of the efforts he has made in light of the Coronavirus pandemic to provide goods, despite the several malpractices by some citizens who have stored goods during this difficult period.