Planning and Economic Development Minister Ahmed Rostom said on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, Egypt’s manufacturing sector has sustained positive growth for more than 19 consecutive periods, contributing about 1.1 percentage points to the country’s overall economic growth rate of 5.1% in fiscal year 2025/2026.
Rostom made the remarks during a high-level panel discussion titled "Quiet Reinvention of Global Manufacturing and the Art of Production at Scale," held as part of the 15th edition of the AIM Investment Summit in Dubai. He outlined the key elements of Egypt’s vision for integrating advanced technologies into productive sectors and highlighted their direct impact on the national economy.
Rostom said the textiles, automotive and value-added services sectors offer promising investment opportunities that could strengthen Egypt’s industrial base and attract further foreign investment. He noted that Egypt has begun intensive cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to formulate a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy.
The strategy seeks to establish a comprehensive five-year vision for expanding the responsible use of emerging technologies, raising public awareness and standardizing government systems and regulations to facilitate efficient and secure data exchange, he said.
Rostom stressed the importance of establishing effective regulatory frameworks to ensure transparency and accountability and mitigate cybersecurity risks arising from autonomous interactions between algorithms. He further stressed that integrating artificial intelligence into production must be accompanied by efforts to reskill and upskill the workforce.
"The objective is not to replace humans with machines, but to empower people to supervise and control them," he said, calling for increased investment in science and technology programs at universities to ensure wider access to knowledge, particularly among disadvantaged groups.
Rostom warned that failure to adequately address the human dimension of technological transformation could turn the "digital divide" into a structural challenge affecting future employment opportunities. The Visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Egypt President El-Sisi receives Chinese President Xi Jinping