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Minister of Industry adopts new IMC plan on SMEs, clean environment IMC will provide over 5,600 services for more than 2,000 companies during new fiscal year
Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour has adopted a new work plan for the Industrial Modernisation Centre (IMC), based on "various and developed" technical programmes and services. The plan is aimed at developing the industrial sector and SMEs and increasing their competitiveness. The plan includes a target of using new and renewable energy resources and clean energy principles in industry, including converting Burg Al-Arab, an industrial zone near Alexandria, into an environmentally friendly city through reducing industrial emissions. The announcement came during a meeting between IMC officials and Abdel Nour to discuss the fiscal year (FY) 2015/2016 plan, to meet the needs of the sector in different governorates. According to Abdel Nour, the IMC will provide over 5,600 services for more than 2,000 companies during the new fiscal year. He added the centre will also focus on expanding its services in Upper Egypt and providing industrial establishments there with services and support. IMC Executive Director Ahmed Taha emphasised that approximately 950 companies have benefited from the centre's services since July 2014 until the end of May 2015. The IMC has offered over 3,500 services in the technical assistance, financial services, information system and training sectors, representing 135% of the annual target. The industrial lands allocation system has changed after ratifying the New Investment Law in March. Abdel Nour explained at the time that the new law extensively focuses on the lands allocation procedures to investors, aiming to coordinate and facilitate between the relevant parties that have authority on lands. The law has also offered unprecedented incentives for lands in remote areas, such as allocating lands through purchasing, leasing or on a usufruct basis at low prices. It allows for the government's participation in paying workers insurance, and training of workers in remote areas to raise their capabilities. Abdel Nour added that the law has also obliged the government to offer incentives for labour-intensive projects, projects remote areas, as well as energy, logistics and production projects. The incentives will allow investors to establish custom ports, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance, and obtain energy at low prices. It also obliges the government to fully or partially repay the costs of providing lands with facilities to the investor after the project's allocation, in addition to bearing the cost of training workers.
