The Board of Directors of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) has held its third meeting. It was chaired by the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Dr. Sahar Nasr; and in attendance were, GAFI’s CEO Ms. Mona Zobaa, GAFI’s Vice-CEO Advisor Mohammed Abdul Wahab, and the Minister’s Advisor Dr. Ahmed Abdul Razik as well as Brigadier Mohammed Aref, Eng. Tarek Tawfik, Mr. Moammed El-Etreby and Dr. Mohammed Sameh Amr.
The BOD approved the establishment of an investment zone in Qalyubia specialized in the SMEs field over 36 feddans at Arab Oliqat, Al-Khanka, including food activities. Within this framework, the Minister emphasized the importance of the environmental dimension of the investment zone along with accelerating its establishment in a timely manner. The BOD also approved the two requests provided by Majid Al Futtaim to establish two investment zones, the first of which will be over 399,400 m3 at Mall of Egypt, 6th of October City. The second will be over 123,658 m3 at Almaza City Center Mall in Cairo to set up investment projects that include stores for global and local brands and the biggest entertainment centre.
Furthermore, the BOD discussed procedures carried out by MIIC to develop the Investors Service Center (ISC) such as building a new annex that would include a reception hall, a VIP investor hall and other halls for ordinary and extraordinary associations, issuance of passports, and finalization of licenses as well as representatives of foreign authorities and the Commercial Registry. The ISC will include representatives of 74 authorities as provided for by the Investment Law for facilitating for investors and companies’ representatives.
The Minister indicated that MIIC worked on facilitating all procedures for investors and on eliminating all obstacles facing them, emphasizing MIIC’s keenness on supporting SMEs, entrepreneurship initiatives and the establishment of free investment zones nationwide. She pointed out that MIIC targeted approximately USD 10 billion of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) during the fiscal year 2017-2018 which required attracting further investors to Egypt.
