The International Conferences on Sustainable Industrial Areas (SIA) bring experts from all over the world together to discuss recent trends, best practices and future development of SIA. The Conferences serve as an international platform for exchanging knowledge about Sustainable Industrial Development of Industrial Areas worldwide. In the past, there have been similar International SIA Conferences in India, China, Indonesia, Mexico and Morocco.
This year's International SIA Conference (the 7th conference in row) took place in Egypt and addressed the topics "Investment Promotion, SME Development and Generation of Productive Employment", thus supporting Egypt"s goals for sustainable industrial area development. Egypt targets an increased growth in the manufacturing sector with enlarged production capacities and is eager to attract national and international investments. While addressing socio, economic and environmental concerns, Sustainable Industrial Areas are regarded to provide competitive business opportunities that will lead to higher profits for the investors, higher revenues and prosperity for the host country itself and an increased generation of productive employment.
The conference was organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) represented by the Industrial Development Authority of Egypt (IDA) in partnership between the East Port Said Development Company (EP), the Egyptian-German Program "Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises (PSME)" implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.
The thematic topics of the conferences represent important Egyptian industrial development goals:
- Creating a favorable climate for investment
Local and foreign investment into industrial areas is regarded as a key driver of industrial growth, employment creation and prosperity, and is therefore one of the core priorities of the Egyptian Government. Sustainable Industrial Areas with their reputation in Good Governance, Resource and Energy Efficiency, Environmental Protection and Social Standards are attractive for modern investment decisions. - Developing SME
SME contribute significantly to employment generation and the strengthening of domestic value creation. They facilitate innovation spillover effects and ensure in parks a robust supply of goods and services needed for the functioning of related enterprises inside the park. The sheltered environment and the strong support of the park management in a sustainable industrial area is able to meet in particular the needs of small and medium scale enterprises (SME) and support their interaction with the larger players in the park. - Promoting Employment
Population growth and the increasing demand for jobs give also responsibility to industrial areas to supply a significant amount of jobs. Apart from the bare numbers of jobs, Sustainable Industrial Areas intend to create jobs of social quality. Together with additional jobs needed by the social infrastructure and various services provided by the park, SIA are able to contribute significantly to employment generation.