The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) held its first executive meeting on Tuesday, discussing the project of "offering an integrated investment environment improving the investment policies, the legal and institutional framework". The project is funded through a non-refundable grant from the World Bank and will be implemented in contribution with the General Authority for Investment (GAFI). The meeting also tackled the "the Will" or "Erada" project which consists on facilitating the Industrial licenses' procedures and automating the land allocation procedures. The IDA's Head, Ismail Gaber; representatives from the World Bank; the participant organisations and a number of strategic and legal experts attended the meeting. The World Bank has allocated a total of $5m for the project implementation, of which $2.25m allocated to develop the investment services' system as well as to develop and automate licenses' procedures in the IDA, said Gaber. The time limit for the project's implementation is three years, where it will be implemented in three phases, Gaber said. The first phase will consist on listing the IDA's services and procedures, and the second phase will be to simplify the procedures. As for the last phase, it will consist of services' and procedures' automation, he added. The meeting represents the beginning of the activation of the Cooperation Agreement, which was signed in August between the Ministry of International Cooperation and the World Bank in order to facilitate the investment environment in Egypt, as well as implementing the "Erada" programme, said Gaber. He added that this programme aims to review legislation governing industrial sector and make the necessary reforms, to simplify and automate industrial licenses' procedures issued by the IDA to investors as part of a one-stop system with GAFI. Gaber also noted that IDA's development and strategic role, such as elaborating overall industrial development plans and implement industrial policies is more significant than the issuance of licenses.
