Parliament studies increasing preference ratio for locally-made goods in tenders bill

Chamber of Engineering Industries will present proposed law amendments next week

The planning and budget committee of parliament is studying increasing the preference ratio for locally-made goods from 10% to 40% in the tenders and auctions bill, Yasser Omar, the committee's representative, said on Tuesday.
Omar expected the committee will complete amending the bill by the end of the month after meeting the concerned bodies and companies, including the Egyptian Federation for Construction and Building Contractors, contracting companies, the Ministries of Finance and Industry, and the public business sector.
Abdel Monem Al-Qadi, representative of the Chamber of Engineering Industries at the Egyptian Federation of Industries, said the chamber is preparing a memorandum of the most important amendments to the bill. He added that the chamber will present this memorandum to parliament's industry committee next week, in preparation for submitting it to the cabinet.
Al-Qadi added that the memorandum will also include the most prominent violations committed by some companies to the regulations setting preference for locally-made goods.
He pointed out that some companies circumvent the law to avoid dealing with Egyptian companies and import their needs instead.
He further added that the Chamber of Engineering Industries will contact other industrial chambers to prepare a report of all companies' violations to the law during the past period.
Parliament's industry committee met with some investors operating in industrial sectors to discuss the most important obstacles facing investors in the application of the law.
The Ministry of Trade is studying making some amendments to the preference for locally-made goods law to fill the gap that emerged when applying the law. Such gaps have been exploited by some companies to circumvent the authorities when conducting government tenders.
Al-Qadi pointed out that the representatives of the Federation of Industries demanded during their meeting with parliament's industry committee to amend some provisions of the law to ensure that some companies cannot circumvent it.
He noted that some companies reject purchasing domestic products despite their high quality, stressing that they place certain technical specifications that comply with imported products only to reject locally-made products.
In July 2015, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued a decree that local products should be given priority in government contracts and tenders, provided that the local components reach 40%.
The decree also stipulates that the Egyptian industrial component in any national project shall not be less than 40% of the estimated value of the project, provided that it meets the standard specifications of the project.