The industrial partnership agreed between Egypt, the UAE, and Jordan last week aims to set up a total of 27 joint projects over three separate implementation phases, Trade and Industry Minister Nevine Gamea told MPs in a plenary session yesterday.

The stages: The first step in implementing the joint projects “is focused on achieving integration between the three countries,” with a focus on food security and pharma manufacturing, Gamea said. The second stage is designed to “localize certain industries and raise their competitiveness, while the third is related to achieving long-term growth in medium-scale industries,” the minister said, without disclosing the expected time frame for each stage.

The partnership comes as the Madbouly government is working on streamlining procedures for industrial investors, Gamea said, pointing to a newly-formed committee mandated with pricing and allocating industrial lands. The committee, whose board is chaired by the Industrial Development Authority, has been tasked with ensuring that industrial investors have a streamlined process that goes through one authority. Any investor request for industrial land is reviewed within a maximum of 20 days, the minister noted. “As a result of these new steps, 79 investors have been allocated a combined 760k sqm of industrial land” since the committee was formed last month, according to Gamea.

WATCH THIS SPACE- The Madbouly government is also preparing fresh tax breaks for certain industries to boost their export capacity through a new Investment Act that is currently in the works, Gamea said. Madbouly had said last month that his government is aiming to boost exports to USD 100 bn per year within five years as part of the government’s plan to increase the private sector’s role in the economy. The Trade and Industry Ministry has produced a list of sectors in which it is prioritizing domestic manufacturing, as we previously reported in Inside Industry.