Friday 04 Apr
Engineer Hassan El-Khatib, Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, met with Ms. Jinyoung Kim, Head of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) for Egypt and the Middle East, and her delegation. The meeting focused on KOICA's project to implement a digital risk management system for the General Organization for Export and Import Control (GOEIC). The system aims to enhance industrial goods import control and market monitoring, aligning with standards in developed nations. The Minister acknowledged the Korean government's support for this initiative.
The Minister said that this project comes within the framework of implementing the state's vision for port governance, accelerating, simplifying, and reducing the cost and time of conformity assessment procedures in ports for goods, with the aim of reducing release time to global rates, while tightening control over the circulation, import, and export of poor-quality goods, and implementing Egypt's international obligations under the "Trade Facilitation Agreement of the World Trade Organization regarding the application of integrated risk management systems in cross-border trade.
The project will span from June 2025 to the end of 2029,
encompassing the development and operationalization of several key digital
systems: a risk-based inspection system for non-food industrial goods at GOEIC
(e-RBI), a laboratory information management system for all GOEIC laboratories
(LIMS), a digital tracking and tracing system, and a Digital Product Passport
(DPP) system for industrial goods in the local market.
The meeting reviewed the components and implementation
stages for activating the industrial and non-food goods import control system.
This included establishing and connecting laboratory information management
systems, a tracking system, local market monitoring, and information exchange
and rapid alerts for trade facilitation through risk management at borders and
within the local market.
The meeting further explored the interrelationships between
these components and the impact of digital governance on tracking and
information exchange efficiency across all stages of industrial and non-food goods
control and circulation. This included border control, market tracking, and the
establishment of a Digital Product Passport (DPP) system for Egyptian-made
products to boost export access to international markets.
The project's first phase will commence next June, following
the signing of the Record of Discussion (ROD) cooperation agreement. This
agreement, between the two countries, includes the provision of equipment,
software design, and digital devices to fully implement the system using
cutting-edge AI, machine learning, and data analytics. South Korea, a global
leader in this system, will provide expertise. The meeting also featured a
presentation by KOICA and GOEIC experts on the project's objectives,
components, and timeline.
It is noteworthy that GOEIC is hosting a delegation of KOICA experts from March 9 to 20, 2025, to implement the agency's integrated risk management project, "Establishing a Digital Platform for Risk-Based Inspection and Tracking to Facilitate Trade in Egypt."
