Preparation mission for spinning and weaving programme

In the National Indicative Plan agreed between the Government of Egypt (GoE) and the EC for 2002-2004, a programme aiming at assisting the GoE with restructuring the “critically vulnerable and socially sensitive spinning and weaving sector” had been foreseen. The broad objectives of the EC assistance consisted in the preparation of a sector-wide strategy as well as the treatment of the impact of the restructuring, and essentially of its social costs.

The restructuring of spinning and weaving and the expected privatisation of some public enterprises has recently become one of the top priorities of the government. This restructuring would involve, among other, early retirement, training and retraining, purchase of equipment and spare parts, improvement of marketing and management, settlement of debt and new loans. However, to be fully credible, these policy announcements and initiatives needed to be transformed into an Action Plan that would include policy changes and structural reforms that would be necessary for the viability of the sector. A specific inter-ministerial working group (the working group (WG)) was set up by the GoE to address these challenges and to prepare the abovementioned Action Plan.

Thus, the specific objectives of this mission were to assist the Egyptian authorities with the preparation of a time limited action plan that would be sufficiently substantial and coherent to be supported by the EC. The Team of Consultants were also requested to assist in the design and formulation of this EC support, in close co-operation with the Cairo Delegation.