Egypt’s once-thriving textile manufacturing sector has weakened over past decades with its outdated machinery from the 1950s used in state-owned companies. Egypt has signed deal with US-based Werner International to restructure 25 state-owned textile companies said Investment minister Ashraf Salman on Thursday.

Ahmed Moustafa, head of the state-owned Holding Company for Textiles said that the restructuring will begin in February and will take 43 weeks to complete.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade, the Exports of Textile, Home Textiles and Ready Made Garments companies made $2.4 billion in the first 10 months of 2015, accounting for around 15 percent of total non-oil exports.

Workers in the textile sector in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla, who have a long history of organized action, have held numerous strikes before and after the 25 January 2011 uprising, with a wave of protests in 2006 and 2008, representing the largest anti-regime protests during the 30-year rule of president Hosni Mubarak.

Public and private companies from the labour-intensive sector provide around 25 percent of all industrial jobs in Egypt, according to the Netherlands Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries.

Werner International is a management consulting practice specialized exclusively in the fiber, textile, apparel and fashion industry globally active since 1939. Werner is presently having clientele in 70 countries. It’s services range from industrial and technology support for setting-up, improving and restructuring textile and clothing manufacturing operations to strategy and marketing services for new market entry, new product development, supply chain management, branding, retailing, partner search and future strategies build-up.