Egyptian Industries Union member of the Board of Directors, Engineer Osama El-Shahed, stressed the importance of the role of accreditation offices in facilitating investors' procedures for obtaining industrial licenses and approvals.

He praised the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) move to increase the number of its offices to cover all the country's governorates, which contributes to attracting more investments and increasing the industrial growth rate.

In statements today, El-Shahed said that activating the accreditation offices is an important step in reforming the licensing system.

He pointed out that the 2017 Industrial Licensing Facilitation Procedures Law and its executive regulations stipulated the use of such offices, but they have not been activated as required until the IDA recently called for the registration and accreditation of consulting offices within its records.

El-Shahed explained that this allows investors to seek the assistance of private sector consulting offices to ensure compliance with all legal requirements and documents necessary to obtain an operating license, whether related to civil protection works to obtain a building permit, other administrative documents, technical requirements, environmental, safety, and occupational health.

Through these reviews, the investor obtains a certificate of acceptance from the accreditation office, which can be used to obtain an operating license directly, within a period not exceeding five days for low-risk projects and 20 days for high-risk projects.

El-Shahed confirmed that these offices contribute significantly to facilitating the work of factories and completing procedures in the shortest possible time, reducing complicated government transactions, either due to bureaucracy or a decrease in the number of employees within the IDA to complete the reviews, which hinders factories from obtaining a license.

It also provides some transparency by expanding private sector participation and not limiting the service to government agencies.

El-Shahed added that this step comes as part of a series of procedural and legislative reforms we are currently witnessing to promote the industrial sector and attract more investments, in addition to developing and improving the investment climate in Egypt.