Launching the integrated strategy for industry and foreign trade development in Egypt until 2020 is one of the ministry's most important achievements in 2016, according to Minister of Industry and Trade Tarek Kabil. It is considered a focal point for sustainable development in the industrial sector, he added. Kabil said in a statement on Thursday that the ministry designed several programmes within its strategy. One of those is the legislative and procedural reform programme. This includes the Industrial Licensing Law, the Industrial Development Authority's reliance on industrial lands, the issuance of laws regulating tenders and supply to support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the food safety law. It also addresses the legislative procedures regarding the development of entrepreneurship, SMEs, and micro enterprises, and the One-Person Company Law. The second is the industrial development programme through which the ministry offered 22.3m sqm of land in Minya, Quesna, Badr, Sadat, 10th of Ramadan, and Port Said, in addition to industrial clusters in El-Robeiki and Damietta. This programme also completed the preparation of studies regarding the development of the Golden Triangle. In terms of industrial development indicators, the ministry opened 605 new factories with investments worth EGP 9.3bn, a production value of EGP 27.7bn, and 21,000 job opportunities. The ministry also granted 2,881 industrial approvals with investments worth EGP 69bn, providing 136,000 job opportunities. Three companies obtained new licences through a bidding system with a total value of EGP 481m, while new cement production licences were also granted. The ministry also issued 900 Egyptian standard specifications covering all industrial sectors, and organised 8,500 inspection visits to 237 properties that obtained the Egyptian quality trademark. In the oversight on industrial establishments, the Industrial Control Authority (ICA) held 9,734 inspection visits to ensure the quality of products. This included collecting samples and overseeing legal procedures. The ICA conducted 3,068 technical studies in the areas of temporary admission, drawback, and the volume of production, and investigated 240 citizen complaints.
