By Shaden Khalil
Acting Minister of Foreign Trade and Industry Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour issued the executive regulations of Law 05/2015 regarding offering preferential treatment to Egyptian products, the ministry announced on Tuesday.
The law, which stipulates that Egyptian components in products should exceed 40%, pushes “foreign competitors” to present the best prices to face the Egyptian competitive price, Abdel Nour said, adding that it gives advantages for qualified Egyptian products.
Hisham Ragab, who is the legislative and legal affairs advisor to the minister of industry, said that the ministry has cooperated with authorities in creating the list, including the General Authority of Manufacturing Development, the General Authority of Quality and Manufacturing Union, as well as experts in governmental tenders and auctions, and the department of legislation revised it.
“The law aims to motivate investors to have new investments in manufacturing to benefit from the specialisation advantages given to Egyptian products,” Abdel Nour said.
Abdel Nour said that the executive regulation, which encompasses many sectors, determines the way of calculating the Egyptian share in manufactured products in percentages; it contains the needed procedures to produce a certificate that proves that the manufacturing union has covered this percentage after being certified from the General Authority of Industry Development.
Ragab said that the committee concerned with giving preferential treatment to Egyptian manufactured products will be formed and its work will be organised by the participation of ministries of planning, investment, and military production and state council, as mentioned in article 9 of law, so that they recommend their delegates.
Abdel Nour said that the regulation clarified the needed rules for enhancing the values of transparency and it doesn’t have any discrimination against Egyptian products.
He added that the minimum requirement condition helps the Egyptian manufactured material to be added in infrastructure and public utility products, which will create new work opportunities and facilitate many fields of technological transportation which is related with these projects.
The interested authorities can buy products either through the project’s contracts or purchasing contracts with specifying some exceptions for breaking the contract. The regulation contained the conditions of exceptions to guarantee that this assignment will be applied, in addition to practical and technical considerations in the contracts of governmental purchasing.
