GAFI assigns 4 Golden Licenses for projects with collective investments of $487M

Cairo – October 29, 2023: Egypt’s General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) provided four companies with Golden Licenses to facilitate the establishment of new projects worth around $487 million.

On Sunday, GAFI CEO, Hossam Heiba, signed and gave the licenses to Samsung Electronics Egypt, the Egyptian Natural Gas Company (GASCO), Fayoum Stores and Warehouses, and EgyptSat 2. This brings the total number of companies assigned the license to 24 companies, according to an official cabinet statement.

Samsung Electronics Egypt’s new license will enable it to accelerate its plans to establish a new mobile phone factory in Beni Suef with a disclosed investment of $55 million.

GASCO looks to launch a new project in its Western Desert gas complex to boost its output of gas and other derivates; the project intends to up production of butane gas and condensate, natural gas and raw material from a mixture of ethane and propane, and produce commercial propane for export.

With investments of $380 million, the company plans to add a fourth production line with a capacity of 600 million cubic feet per day.

The new license will facilitate EgyptSat 2’s establishment of a new car and electric bus manufacturing factory in the 10th of Ramadan City with an investment of EGP 300 million, explained the statement.

Finally, GAFI provided the Fayoum Warehouse and Storage Company with a Golden License to build new warehouses with a storage capacity of 75 thousand pallets. The statement explained that the project would require an investment of EGP 1.3 billion.

Also known as “single approval licenses,” the Golden Licenses were created by the government to facilitate any required approvals by companies to acquire, lease, and operate on Egyptian lands without additional state approvals, accelerating new investment flows and improving Egypt’s business environment.

In early October Heiba shared that his authority was looking into launching a new “Silver License” for emerging companies/startups, with a possible launch before the end of 2023, which would facilitate these companies’ business activities.