IDA discovers LE 1B in violations in industrial sector

CAIRO – 4 January 2018: The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) discovered a LE 1 billion financial violations in the industrial sector, Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Tarek Kabil announced Thursday.

With the aim of tightening import and custom procedures, the IDA launched last week a monitoring campaign on 10,000 factories in the sectors of engineering, textile, food, wood, chemical and leather industries.

"Under the same campaign, the IDA accredited more than 800 maintenance centers, issued 2,000 licenses for small-scale factories and prepared more than 5,000 technical studies," Kabil added.

In May 2017, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi approved the 15/2017 Industrial Permits Act that aims at easing measures for obtaining licenses for industrial establishments. The act entails granting investors needed approvals in no more than one month, instead of a period of almost two years under the old law, No. 83, 2002.

Three months later, the executive regulation of the new Industrial Permits Act was ratified. As per the regulations, the industrial licenses will be given in less than a week, but the risky industries will get permits in less than 30 days.

In previous statements, Kabil said that 80 percent of the projects will be granted licenses upon notifications, while 20 percent will have to wait for the approval of IDA due to being categorized as “risky” industries.