The Ismail government signed off yesterday on the amended Leasing and Factoring Act that the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority had drafted in April, according to a Cabinet statement. The bill, which will now be passed to the Council of State (Maglis Al Dawla) for review, adds clauses to regulate SME financing and mandates the country’s economic courts with resolving legal issues pertaining to the law. Other decisions out of yesterday’s weekly meeting:

• Approving an amended bill to regulate river traffic and commercial transportation on the Nile that mandates the River Transport Authority and the Local Development Ministry with issuing licenses for different types of commercial units. A previous version of the bill would have seen the establishment of a single agency to streamline the licensing process;
• Approving a request from the Damietta Port Authority to revise contracts with a liquid bulk trading company on a right-to-use basis;
• Ratifying amendments to the executive regulations of the law regulating universities, allowing Aswan University to establish a dental college.