The new law on small enterprises is set to focus on innovative entrepreneurial projects that offer diverse products and services.
Nevine Gamea, Minister of Trade and Industry and Executive Director of the Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA), said these projects will be set up to meet the needs of local or global markets.
In a statement on Monday, Gamea added that the entrepreneurship will witness strong support through the law. It has allocated a set of facilities, as well as financial and technical incentives, to ensure that they are particularly attractive to Egypt’s youth.
This aims to encourage young entrepreneurs, both as innovators and inventors, to turn their ideas into projects. The law is also set to help these projects become economically feasible, and to provide profitability and stable job opportunities for young people across the country.
Technical assistance for registering patents will be provided through MSMEDA and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Gamea said, adding that these projects will also be exempt from all patent registration fees.
She explained that the law also grants many financing, technical and marketing incentives to business incubators providing services to newly established projects. This is to provide help to young people in converting their innovations into economically feasible projects that are able to produce a useful and competitive product.
The minister pointed out that the law includes a package of facilities related to the adoption of new and flexible mechanisms. This will provide the financing and facilitate the procedures for setting up entrepreneurial projects, for which the law has fixed certain times and reduced fees to which operating agencies commit to operating licences.
Gamea stressed that the advantages and incentives in the law are not limited to establishing and starting projects, but rather includes help for these projects looking to continued grow. The state will bear a portion of the cost of technical training for workers in these projects, to increase productivity and competitiveness, whilst developing the skills of Egyptian workers and qualify them for modern industries.
The minister added that the law provides a large amount of marketing support to these projects. They will be allowed to participate, either for free or for a small fee, in many internal and external exhibitions.
According to Gamea, MSMEDA is currently working on creating the law’s executive regulations in cooperation with the relevant authorities. The aim is to put the executive and procedural framework in place to ensure all incentives and benefits that fall under the law reach the owners of medium, small and micro enterprises and entrepreneurs.
