Chairperson of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) Ahmed Abdel Razek said that the authority targets to offer 12 ready industrial complexes to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the current year. Abdel Razek said—during his speech at the Egyptian-Turkish business forum on Saturday—that the IDA is seeking to establish 8 industrial complexes out of a total of 12 complexes in Upper Egypt in the coming period. The IDA plans to establish 22 industrial complexes for SMEs until 2020, and it offered two complexes in Sadat City to be ready for operation in September. According to Abdel Razek, the complexes include 200 factories for SMEs, and they are scheduled to be allocated free of charge to Egyptian and foreign investors in Upper Egypt. He pointed out that the IDA targets to offer 60m sqm of flat land until 2020, and that it offered 11m sqm since its establishment in 2006. 11m sqm of lands were offered in 2016—which means that what was offered in 2016 alone was as much as what had been offered in the past nine years. He added that the Ministry of Industry and Trade is about to establish a specialised system to SMEs that would be responsible for providing all the necessary facilities and licenses. The IDA has recently completed a new licensing law, and the House of Representatives is expected to ratify it within ten days. He explained that the law stipulates that license procedures of low-risk projects, which represent 80% of all industries, are to be completed within one week, while licenses of high-risk projects, which represent the remaining 20%, are to be completed within one month. Egypt is targeting the industry rather than the trade exchange during the next phase to reduce the deficit in the balance of payments. "This does not mean that we are going to neglect the trade exchange, but we are taking the industry as a strong base to support it," Abdel Razek said.
