Egypt among best ten countries enhancing business activities
Egypt, Economics, 9/17/2005

For the first time, Egypt trailed sixth among the best 10 countries undertaking economic reforms to enhance business activities, according to a report of the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The 3rd annual report, released by the organization, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, said that Egypt has embarked on several daring reforms, particularly in the field of tax reduction, facilitating registration procedures of new companies, obtaining loans and trade with neighboring countries.

These measures contributed in creating job opportunities and luring more investments, the report added.

The report, however, stressed that Egypt still needs to take more urgent reforms to improve local investment chances; mainly in the domains of licensing procedures, labor laws, investors protection, taxation, ownership registration and speeding up trade projects liquidation.

In statements to Al-Ahram daily, Michael Klein, World Bank/IFC Vice President for Private Sector Development and IFC Chief Economist said that it was the first time to see real efforts being exerted to reform project-establishing measures by a new Egyptian team of economists assuming responsibility.

He added that there has been a real political desire, since the past year, to implementing these reforms.

Klein stressed that Egypt ranked among the best ten states in the IFC report on facilitating measures for the set up of projects, which was a sign of a landmark development in the country.

For his part, Simon Yankov, the head of the IFC Control and Analysis unit, who is also a Middle East affairs expert, reiterated that the situation in Egypt generally looks positive, after the Egyptian government has taken steps to facilitate procedures of the projects registration.

As for taxation, the IFC study revealed that the Egyptian investor pays only 32% in tax out of his total profit, compared to 35% in the Middle East region and 46% in the European countries.

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