Industrial license issuances are up 25x since Industrial Permits Act: Cutting red tape is doing wonders for industry, with the number of permits for plants growing 25x since the Industrial Permits Act was signed into law last summer, Industrial Development Authority head Ahmed Abdel Razek said. The authority has issued 8,400 licenses since the law came into effect versus 340 the year before, he tells Bloomberg in an interview. The law effectively cuts the wait-time to receive approval for permits to seven or 30 days (depending on the licensing track) from a previous average of 600 days.

Domestic and foreign manufacturers alike are driving demand for licenses: “A lot of existing investors are expanding, and many foreign investors started to enter the Egyptian market after they found a good investing environment,” he added. “Half of the requests for land on my waiting lists are by foreign investors.”

What’s next for the Authority? Making more land available for industrial use, said Abdel Razek. To attract more interest, the authority plans to offer about 30 mn sqm of land for industrial purposes through 2020, up from 9.5 mn sqm in the period between 2007 and 2016. In a separate statement to the press, he said that the government is planning to introduce to the House of Representatives a new law governing the formation and management of industrial zones following the Eid break.