ATTRACTING INVESTMENT
TO EXPORT-ORIENTED INDUSTRIES
What makes Egypt the Middle East's best investment choice?
In 1991, the Egyptian government introduced a multi-phased economic reform program with the backing of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. As part of the government's liberalization measures, new legislation has been introduced aimed at attracting overseas investment.
In 1997, the "Investment Guarantees and Incentives Law" was passed, unifying all investment incentives in a single piece of legislation. The principal purpose of the law is to strengthen production and foreign direct investment by affirming all existing incentives, maximizing and streamlining the means by which they are granted.
GUARANTEES AND INCENTIVES
- Projects may be wholly owned by foreigners.
- Guarantees against nationalization and expropriation
of projects.
- Output of projects are subject to price controls.
- Projects are allowed to repatriate capital and profits.
- The majority of directors do not need to be Egyptian.
- Egyptian staff can be hired freely.
- Foreign experts' salaries are exempt from income tax
if their stay in Egypt is for less than one year.
- Exemption from rules on worker participation
in management.
- Wide range of tax holidays and other fiscal exemptions.
- Among the sectors covered by the investment incentive
policy are land reclamation, livestock, poultry and fish
farming, industry and mining, tourism, maritime and air
transport, refrigerated transportation and storage, housing
and real estate, oil and natural gas support services,
hospitals, utilities, infrastructure, finance, and software.
HOW TO GET STARTED: The Role Of Gafi
Egypt's General Authority for Investment (GAFI) is a one-stop shop, which approves applications for projects within 16 sectors. Potential investors must submit a notification form which provides detailed information on the project. In many cases, registration is completed within one week.
GAFI applies for all necessary licenses for the establishment and operation of the project from the relevant state agencies on behalf of entrepreneurs. GAFI also assists entrepreneurs in site selection and allocation of land, and certifies starting production dates to identify the beginning of the tax-exempted period, offering assistance through the entire project cycle.
- With easily accessible ports on both the Mediterranean
and the Red Sea, as well as through the Suez Canal,
Egypt is the gateway to markets of Europe, Asia and
the Far East and the global marketplace.
- Highly skilled labor at competitive wages.
- An efficient banking system providing international
standards, backed up by a dynamic stock market.
- Extensive transportation and communications facilities and well-developed infrastructure.
- Low-cost utilities, transport and raw materials.
Today's Egypt offers investors a wide range of attractive features in addition to a stable macro-economic environment, liberalized trade environment, and a freely convertible currency with full rights to effect all transfers abroad.
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