12/10/2004
Al-Alam Alyom Newspaper 2004/OCTOBER /12
The agreement for facilitating trade exchanges between Egypt and Arab countries witnesses its final implementation phase beginning the 1st of January. Customs charges on all our imports from the Arab countries will be cancelled within the framework of the implementation of the Arab Free Trade Agreement. This is a great challenge for local industries and products from similar competitive Arab commodities and products. All these challenges and the challenges of international trade must be confronted with an orientation towards the cancellation of customs barriers on exports. The government recently issued several decrees to reduce customs of imported components, working capital, and production supplies. The government also began to draft new tax laws in order to reduce the load on producers and financiers to support trade and industry, and increase the purchasing power of the community. In the following lines, some business and industry men express their opinions regarding the recent government procedures, and whether they have placed local products on an equal competitive footing with similar ones in Arab countries, or should there be other procedures to boost the progress of economic reform.(Available in Arabic – German in PDF)
The agreement for facilitating trade exchanges between Egypt and Arab countries witnesses its final implementation phase beginning the 1st of January. Customs charges on all our imports from the Arab countries will be cancelled within the framework of the implementation of the Arab Free Trade Agreement. This is a great challenge for local industries and products from similar competitive Arab commodities and products. All these challenges and the challenges of international trade must be confronted with an orientation towards the cancellation of customs barriers on exports. The government recently issued several decrees to reduce customs of imported components, working capital, and production supplies. The government also began to draft new tax laws in order to reduce the load on producers and financiers to support trade and industry, and increase the purchasing power of the community. In the following lines, some business and industry men express their opinions regarding the recent government procedures, and whether they have placed local products on an equal competitive footing with similar ones in Arab countries, or should there be other procedures to boost the progress of economic reform. In the beginning, Engineer Mohamed Farag Amer, Chairman of the Investors Association in the new city of Borg El-Arab, Chairman of Faragalla Companies Group, and member of Shoura Council, stated that there is no doubt that the recent decrees and procedures issued by the government will help producers and exporters increase their competitive capabilities. Such decrees fulfilled demands that businessmen have called for many years, and are important steps that we hope to finish together, as government and private sector, in favor of industrial and the national economy as a whole. Amer believes that the new procedures; specifically those related to custom reductions on production supplies, materials and components, the modifications to the tax law, as well as the reduction of land prices for the projects in new cities providing areas with prices that do not exceed LE 50 per square meter for small projects to support young producers and feeding industries, add much to industry and the Egyptian economy. He praised the government efforts for facing very complicated topics and issues amounting to LE 3.5 billion from customs proceeds for investment in the production and industrial sectors and development project.