Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the proposed criteria for establishing new special free zones. The meeting was attended by a number of ministers and officials, including Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait, Minister of State for Military Production Mohamed Salah El-Din Mostafa, Minister of Trade and Industry Ahmed Samir, Deputy Minister of Finance for Financial Policies Ahmed Kujuk, and CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) Hossam Heiba. In his opening remarks, the Prime Minister stressed the importance of having clear criteria for establishing new special free zones. He noted that there has been a lot of discussion about the value-add that these zones can provide to the Egyptian economy. "Any new request to establish a special free zone must be in line with these criteria," Madbouly said. Heiba then presented the proposed criteria, which were developed by GAFI. The criteria are designed to select projects that will achieve added value for the national economy. They also take into account the decisions issued by the Cabinet or the Board of Directors of GAFI regarding the targeted activities, industrial or service, at the country level, and in line with the state's vision "Egypt 2030", the rules for granting the golden license, and the Cabinet decision No. (7) of 2020 on determining the areas of sector (A) most in need of development. The CEO of GAFI added that the basic elements and determinants of the investment project that operates under the special free zones system are linked to the achievement of a set of criteria in the targeted project, the most important of which are the type of activity, the size of the workforce, the export rate abroad, the reliance on the local component, the technology used, and the investment costs. Each of these criteria is given a specific relative weight, and the total relative weights of all criteria is 100%. New project applications to operate under the special free zones system that score 70 or more points are accepted, otherwise these projects are directed to operate under one of the other investment systems. The meeting witnessed discussions and observations from the ministers and officials present on the proposed criteria presented by the CEO of GAFI. It was agreed to reach a unified vision for these criteria with the agreement of the concerned ministers and officials, to be presented to the Cabinet.
