Ministry of Industry Amends Executi

On 25 June 2018, new amendments to the Executive Regulations of the Industrial Registry Law were issued by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, further reducing the requirements to registration as part of the state’s push to simplify industrial licensing to promote investment and formalize temporary industrial registrations that are currently in use.

Background

Issued in 1978, the Industrial Register Law’s Executive Regulations have long presented an obstacle to investment and industry. This is due to the onerous prerequisites to obtaining a permanent registration, including requiring the consent of various other government entities and sometimes unrelated documents, resulting in the failure of many facilities to obtain a permanent registration, and having to rely instead on temporary registrations that could be renewed indefinitely. In attempt to mitigate this situation, industrial registry requirements were previously reduced by Ministry of Industry and Trade Decision No. 133 of 2013.[1]

The New Amendments

The latest amendments were issued by virtue of Minister of Trade and Industry Decision No. 497 of 2018,[2] which reinstated the operating license as a prerequisite to obtaining an industrial registration and removed the prerequisite of social insurance registration. The amendment also both expands and restricts the information required for an update to the registration, removing the vague requirement of “any details affecting production” and substituting “changes in production capacity”, while leaving to the discretion of the relevant authorities the designation of any further material updates. The amendment also formalizes – and renames – the temporary industrial registrations that many establishments had maintained for years because of an inability to fulfil the requirements, dubbing them “conditional industrial registrations”, which may be obtained by establishing the seriousness of the industrial project, guidelines for which will be issued by the licensing authority.   [1] Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade Decision No. 133/2013 amending certain provisions of the Executive Regulations of the Industrial Registry Law, Egyptian Gazette, Issue No. 76, 1 April 2013. [2] Ministry of Trade and Industry Decision No. 497/2018 amending certain provisions of the Ministerial Decision No. 186/1978 enacting the Executive Regulations of the Industrial Registry Law No. 24/1977, Egyptian Gazette, Issue No. 143, 25 June 2018.