Minister of Trade Nevine Gamea has called on owners of informal businesses that lack documentation to reconcile their situation so that they may continue their activities officially by applying for a license according to Enterprise Development Law 152 of 2020. The law allows informal business owners to obtain licenses in a simple and motivating manner to qualify them to benefit from the advantages and financial and tax facilities provided by the law. This comes in implementation of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's directives to work on legitimising and reconciling the conditions of projects operating in the informal sector in order to ensure their stability, continuity, and increase their productivity in a legal investment climate and to qualify them to benefit from the advantages and incentives provided by state laws that support investment and production. Gamea affirmed the political leadership's keenness to provide all aspects of support to owners of medium, small, and micro enterprises and to help them adjust their legal status in order to maintain their effective participation in the development of the national economy by expanding and increasing production and providing more job opportunities. This will be achieved by providing facilitated financing mechanisms and marketing and training services along with technical expertise to develop projects and increase their competitiveness at home and abroad. The minister also praised the cooperation of all state agencies to implement the president's directives and coordinate with the agency to facilitate the issuance of licenses that can legally protect these projects and ensure their stability. She indicated that the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency is intensifying its efforts to reconcile the status of informal sector projects, transitioning them into the formal economy and addressing the concerns of project owners regarding questions related to tax treatment and the period of issuance of reconciliation documents. Furthermore, she clarified that once these informal projects obtain a temporary license, they will be allowed to operate on a temporary basis and will be recognised by all state agencies and protected by the law until their needs are studied and their conditions are finally settled, noting that any criminal cases filed against such projects would be dropped. She added that the owners of informal businesses can go to the Project Development Agency's branches in various governorates, where service delivery units can issue a temporary operating license to reconcile their status for a period of up to five years until the final operating license is issued. The temporary license shall be issued within 10 days from the date on which the project owner submits the project establishment documents, which are the tax card, commercial registration, and initial approvals.
