Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil said that his ministry, represented by the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), granted more than 2,000 industrial licenses during the three months that followed the passage of the Industrial Licensing bylaws in August. In a brief statement to Daily News Egypt, Kabil said that the bylaws for industrial licensing are a qualitative leap for national industry, as they contribute to the simplification of licensing procedures in order to reduce the time required to extract licenses from 634 to seven days for low-risk industries and 30 days for high-risk industries. The Ministry of Trade and Industry launched a marketing campaign for the Industrial Licensing Law last week in the presence of a number of ministers and heads of business organisations and investors. The ministry announced the executive regulations of the Industrial Licenses Law in August, which reduced the scope of obtaining industrial licenses from 11 parties into one body, namely, the IDA. The Industrial Development Authority, in case the investor fulfils all documents, is required to decide upon the application within a period not exceeding 30 days from the application date. If documents are not complete, the IDA shall inform the applicant within a period not exceeding 21 days from the date of submitting the application in order to inspect the establishment and decide on the application. The law imposes a fine, not exceeding EGP 100,000, on any employee that disrupts the licensing procedures. For his part, a government source said that one month after the announcement of the executive regulations of the Industrial Licensing Law, the IDA received 923 requests from investors to adjust their situation and obtain permanent industrial licenses for their facilities. He added that the law is one of the most important elements of attracting foreign investment to the local market, and will help to include the informal economy in the official system. The government pursues, through economic and legislative reforms, the elimination of bureaucracy and facilitation of an investment climate for local and foreign investors alike. The source confirmed that the law helps to eliminate bureaucracy and raise the competitiveness of Egyptian industry during the coming period, expecting the number of industrial facilities that seek adjusting their situation to increase.
