Egyptian Minister of Industry and Trade Tariq Qabeel revealed that the Egyptian government gave final approvals for 207 projects during the month of February at an investment cost of 4 billion dollars and provides more than 6,000 jobs. 

According to Qabeel, the ministry is seeking to establish nine central regional offices to cover Egypt's provinces, and to deal with investors directly, to comply with applications, and to grant the necessary licenses, without the need for the investor to visit the headquarters of the Investment Authority in Cairo.

Qabeel added, in exclusive statements for Arabs Today, that the investment map is being finalized in Egypt's proviences before next August, and the map will strengthen the internal and external projects as well as focusing on promoting projects in Upper Egypt.

Regarding the prices of lands and its impact on investment,  the Minister of Industry stressed that he hopes to give investors land at the appropriate prices for the industry, not in the form of trade. He said that the establishment of factories and projects will provide Egypt with many job opportunities and foreign currency, pointing out that the ministry is in the process of establishing a public body for industrial development, and will be among its tasks pricing land at an industrial price, not commercial.

Regarding the 1000 factory issue, and the desire of the owners to obtain additional time, Qabeel explained that he was awarded the owners of these defaulters factories, a chance 6 additional months, to start building factories, before withdrawing land from them, after the cabinet granted them a full year, since December 2015.

"There are many requests that come to the ministry need industrial places for people who are really serious, while there are no industrial lands," he said. Therefore, the ministry will not allow untapped land, the minister stated.

Qabeel confirmed the number of industrial land that was launched during 2016, reached 11 million cubic meters, which is more than the area that has been launched since the past seven years, which amounted to 9.5, which means that there is a high demand for industrial land, and must be exploited to increase investments.

On the volume of Arab investments in Egypt during the current period, Qabeel stressed that the volume of investments is very small and that the Egyptian government is seeking to rectify this situation as soon as possible.

The Minister of Industry stressed that Egyptian exports have witnessed an increase during the last period of 2 million dollars, and industrial growth exceeded 40% in the last 4 months, last year.