(Photo from COMESA)
By Shaimaa Elise and Nehal Mounir
Egypt negotiated with Ethiopia on Wednesday over procedures to establish a Free Trade Area (FTA) in Ethiopia, according to head of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) Ismail Gaber.
The two countries also discussed whether the area will be run by an industrial developeror not, Gaber added.
The IDA is examining the FTA’s completion with Sudan on an area of 2m metres and operated by an industrial developer system.
On the sideline of the tripartite African blocs conference held in Sharm El-Sheikh on Wednesday, Gaber said the lands will be specified to resolve the shortage of land. Investors have suffered from such a land shortage during the last period, which prevented the influx of new local and foreign investments.
Gaber pointed out that the IDA is working on granting temporary operation licences for factories for a year in preparation for the elimination of bureaucracy.
A number of investors have suffered during the last period over the difficulty in obtaining operating licences despite having applied for them, a process which takes approximately three years to complete.
Gaber revealed that a meeting will be held next week with Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour to discuss launching 14 to 16 cement operation licences, with the capacity of 22m tonnes per year. About 20 investors have applied for these licences.
