Rustum Omar, director of investigations and legal research at the Center for the Prevention of Monopolistic Practices said that new amendments to the Law on the Prevention of Monopolistic Practices would be issued in a few days. During a meeting of the Committee on Industry, the Egyptian Businessmen's Association said Tuesday that the Egyptian market needs a general policy of competition to help create legislation serving the public interest. Omar said the Egyptian market is not suffering from a monopoly with respect to imported meat but the problem is that that the market in particular is suffering from randomized pricing. Omar said that the smuggling of goods and commercial fraud is outside the terms of the center. The center is meant to apply the law concerning monopolistic practices in the domestic market, pointing out that the device was established for the purpose of market surveillance and information gathering. Another unit monitors the government contracts and auctions systems Hassan el-Shafei, a member of the businessmen's association, said that the state is the basic monopoly in the Egyptian market given the prices of industrial land, electricity, and water. He called for an end of the state monopoly to ensure economic progress. Shafeisaid that the law needs to be activated in order for market to provide products of higher quality at lower prices to benefit the national economy.
