GAFI, Finestra, Damietta Governorate sign MoU to establish a public free zone

CAIRO - 20 June 2023: The General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), the Damietta Governorate signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Italian Finestra Alliance today to establish a public free zone in the Damietta.

The Italian alliance presented the future plan for the free zone; it will be divided into 220 units dedicated to manufacturing, storage and administrative headquarters. The free zone will also be linked to Egyptian ports and the international coastal road.

Damietta will allocate a plot of land with an area of ​​more than 183 acres on the international coastal road for the zone, while Finestra will establish, facilitate, develop the area and carry out maintenance work to prepare the region to receive investments.

Finestra will also promote and market projects in the zone to attract investments globally and from Italy. GAFI will manage and operate the public free zone in accordance with Egypt’s investment law.

Hossam Heiba, GAFI’s CEO, confirmed that GAFI will work to accelerate the process of issuing licenses and approvals, in all stages of the project and that the new free zone will be environmentally friendly and will adhere to the highest national and international environmental standards.

This marks Finestra’s first public free zone to build a private industrial developer system, the second public free zone in Damietta Governorate, and the tenth zone in Egypt.

Egypt currently includes nine public free zones in the cities of Alexandria, Cairo, Port Said, Suez, Ismailia, Damietta, Shebin El-Koum, and Qeft, in addition to the media zone in 6th of October City.