The Ministry of Investment formed a joint committee with the Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade to determine the sectors and activities that will be prioritised in the allocation of free government lands.
Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman told Daily News Egypt that the cabinet aims to allocate lands for free to serious investors in a number of industrial areas, especially in Upper Egypt.
The cabinet approved, last week, the decision to allocate lands without charge in a number of industrial zones to investors, in accordance with Article 74 of the Investment Guarantees and Incentives Law.
The decision states that the lands will be allocated to investors who meet the technical and financial conditions determined by the cabinet.
“The cabinet is the authority entitled to set the financial and technical conditions for investors wishing to obtain land for free,” Salman said.
The cabinet is focusing on a number of governorates in Upper Egypt, to limit the amount of unused lands there, in coordination with various authorities.
Alaa Omar, CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), said the cabinet decision prioritises the allocation of land in the governorates of Upper Egypt. He added that Nubia and other remote governorates will be integrated at a later stage, in accordance with the Investment Guarantees and Incentives Law.
Salman told Daily News Egypt that the Saudi investor, Abdel Ellah Kaki, owner of Kaki Investment Group, will arrive to Cairo within the next two weeks, to settle a dispute regarding the Tanta Flax Company, following an Administrative Court decision to restore the company to the state.
The Saudi investor will negotiate to settle the crisis in exchange for between EGP 500m and EGP 1bn, while the Chemical Industries Holding Company wishes to settle the dispute in exchange for EGP 80m.
Salman moreover revealed that Indonesian investor Indorama intends to inject new investments exceeding $180m in the petrochemical sector, in light of the settlement of the dispute between the Egyptian government and Shebin El-Kom Spinning Company for $54m last July.
The Indonesian investor seeks to acquire local companies operating in the petrochemical sector, rather than establishing a new company.
