In a meeting senior cabinet officials, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly discussed opportunities to maximize the utilization of Egypt’s mineral wealth in the localization of high-tech industries, the Cabinet announced.

The meeting was attended by Tarek El Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources; Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy; Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment; Mohamed Salah El-Din, Minister of State for Military Production; Ahmed Samir, Minister of Trade and Industry; Abdel Aziz Seif, Adviser to the President of the Republic for technological development; Hossam Osman, Advisor to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology for technological innovation, electronics industry and training; and other senior officials of different ministries and concerned authorities.

At the beginning of the meeting, Madbouly affirmed that the state is making efforts to optimally benefit from the mineral resources in Egypt, especially the white sand and quartz raw materials. This is in addition to measures taken to maximize the added value of industries based on mineral wealth.

Madbouly indicated that there is a mandate to work on preparing an integrated study to set a specific path in which the efforts of all state agencies will be integrated, to localize the electronic chip and photovoltaic panels industry and attract investments in this field. He further stated that these industries are important and delicate. The government recently announced many incentives for strategic industries, which may contribute to attracting several manufacturers.

The meeting reviewed the most prominent results of the studies that are being carried out to enhance utilization of the mineral wealth, including several scenarios for maximizing the added value of raw materials from white sand and quartz. This would help in many projects that depend on white sand.