Cairo – Mubasher: The Ministry of Trade and Investment has given approvals for a total of 216 industrial projects to be established inside and outside various industrial zones in Egypt in May 2016 at investments totalling EGP 5.8 billion ($650 million), according to a statement released Saturday.
Minister Tarek Kabil revealed that the new projects are distributed among 9 sectors, with 50 projects in the food industry, 64 in engineering, 46 in chemicals, and 35 in the textile industry. The minerals, mining and leather products sectors also received approvals for 6, 10 and 3 projects respectively.
Around 90 investors have received approvals to expand their industrial establishments with investments totalling EGP 2.3 billion in May compared to 70 investors and EGP 4.5 billion investments in April, the minister said, citing information from the Investment Development Authority's (IDA) report.
These figures follow the Egyptian government's endorsement of a draft law to facilitate the approvals given to industrial establishments in March. Egypt has taken steps to boost the speed of providing approvals after being ranked, by international institutions, as being slow in providing licences to projects, which puts off investors from investing in the country.
