CAIRO - By partially defusing the mass protests in different sectors, the Government of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has been trying to help local and foreign investors. The Government revealed its good news to these investors when Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Mahmoud Eissa issued a ministerial decree to reduce the value of the Letter of Guarantee for land located in industrial zones in new cities. The L/G reduction, which will definitely ease the financial burdens incurred by investors since the recent revolution, will be enforced retrospectively. Further, the decree extends the grace period for all industrial projects from September 30 to December 13. The role of the Industrial Development Authority has also been enlarged; IDA's offices across the country are now committed to endorsing all kinds of licences for industrial projects in no more than six months. Announcing the new investment arrangements, the Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade emphasised that they would restore the confidence of local, Arab and foreign investors in Egypt's investment environment and official guarantees. Eissa is confident that the new regulations will stimulate foreign and Arab investments here. “New investment projects will spring up, now that the private sector is being given more support by the Government,” the minister stressed, adding that unemployment in Egypt will be reduced to an unacceptable level. The investment sector in Egypt has been violently shaken by the workers and employees who launched mass strikes for more money and better working conditions. Uncertainty prevailed in investment projects nationwide when the Administrative Court withdrew vast swathes of agricultural land from its Arab owners. The court explained that these owners had breached their contractual obligations. The victims of the court's decision are threatening to go to international arbitration.
