By Mohamed Ayyad
The Egyptian General Authority for Investment and Free Zones(GAFI), representing Ministry of Investment, signed a cooperation protocol with the governorate of Alexandria to simplify and speed up procedures of initiating investment activities, according to GAFI Chairman Alaa Omar.
This allows more investments to flow, and the expansion of present ones, Omar noted.
“The protocol is with the Smart Centre for the Projects Services in Alexandria, in order to achieve integration between the services of GAFI and the governorate,” he said. He signed the protocol with Alexandria Governor Hany El-Messiry on Monday.
Omar said the protocol aims to benefit from the Smart Centre by applying the experiment of the single-window at the Investment Services branch affiliated to GAFI in Alexandria, to present the services of the centre through it.
The services the Smart Centre offers are issuing all licences of commercial, industrial, and entertainment business, as well as the licences for construction, adding floors to buildings, modifying buildings, demolition, refurbishments, and exterior finishing.
GAFI will enable dealing with representatives of external bodies in all services that come under the scope of the Smart Centre to make it easy for the investors at the Investment Services branch in Alexandria.
According to El-Messiry, the Smart Centre for Projects Services is one of the public administrations in Alexandria, standing as a leading model in the governorate, where it works on facilitating governmental services and simplifying the procedures of issuing licences that all district authorities grant.
Omar said the protocol comes as part of the strategy developed by the state, represented by GAFI and all governmental bodies, to simplify and facilitate procedures for investors and develop the single-window system.
Omar said this step will enable providing services to investors in the best and easiest possible way, which contributes to activating investment flow in Egypt and pushing the national economy forward.
