Egypt has signed a $2.3 million deal with the International Finance Corporation aimed at making its industry more energy-efficient and less polluting, the Ministry of Trade said in a statement on Sunday.

The three-year project is part of a wider strategy by the government to cut down on energy waste to achieve sustainable development and boost the competitiveness of local industry in local and international markets, Minister of Trade Tarek Kabil said according to the statement.

The project aims to encourage private sector investment in clean and efficient energy technologies, according to Nada Shousha, IFC Country Manager for Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, the ministry reported. 

The project will finance studies on the feasibility of locally manufacturing clean energy technologies to be used in local industrial facilities, presenting these studies to private sector investors.

The government’s Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality (EOS) will conduct a detailed study on the local market for motors and electric motors and set new standards for energy-efficiency to match international norms, said EOS head Hassan Abdel Meguid in the statement.

The motors and electric motors manufacturing industry accounts for 60 to 70 percent of Egyptian industrial energy consumption, according to Kabil.