Investment Law No.72 of 2017.

This Law consisting of 94 articles divided in VII Sections aims at governing the investment within the Arab Republic of Egypt and its provisions apply to local and foreign investment, regardless of its size, and investment shall be placed in accordance with the provisions of this Law, either under the regime of the Inland Investment, Investment Zones, Technological Zones, or Free Zones. Article 2 lists the principles governing both, the investor and the government in relation to investment in Egypt. Among these principles are the following (i) promoting fair competition, combating antitrust practices, and supporting entrepreneurship and SMEs; (ii) due consideration of social –related aspects, environment protection and public health; (iii) following the governance, transparency, and no-conflict of interest rules; (iv) assuring stability of investment policies; (v) facilitating and streamlining investment procedures; and (vi) the Government’s right to preserve national security and public interests. Section II deals with Investment guarantees and Incentives and the Law assures the following guarantees to all types of investments (i) fair and equitable treatment to both foreig n and Egyptian investors (the Cabinet has the authority, subject to reciprocity, to grant foreign investment, a more favorable treatment); (ii) prohibits coercive or discriminatory measures on invested money; (iii) foreign investors will be given a residence permit throughout the term of their investment project; (iv) investment is protected against nationalization (expropriation is allowed only for public interest and against fair market value compensation); (v) seizure of money is only allowed by virtue of a court judgment, except for tax and social insurance contribution dues; (vi) licenses given and state-owned land or property allocated to an investment project may not be withdrawn unless the following pre-steps are taken (1) giving the investor a prior notice, (2) giving the investor a grace period to cure the defect, and (3) obtaining the approval of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI); (vii) the right to repatriate profits outside Egypt and receive foreign funds to finance the project without restriction; (viii) facilitating liquidation procedures; (ix) import of machines, equipment, raw materials needed for the purpose of establishing, expanding, or operating the investment project without an importation license. As for incentives, the Law distinguishes between three types of them (i) general incentives, enjoyed by all investment projects, except free zone projects; (ii) special incentives, provided for in art.11 which introduces a new tax reduction system for a period of 3 years for projects established after the issuance of the Law; and (iii) additional incentives, which can be granted to investment projects listed under Article 11. An investment project can allocate up to 10% of its net income profit to participate in one of the following fields, to be deductible from its annual corporate tax (i) environment protection and enhancement; (ii) health, social, cultural services, or any other development areas; (iii) vocational education, research funding, awareness campaign in collaboration with universities or scientific institutions aiming at developing and enhancing production; and (iv) scientific training and research (art. 15).
Regarding the licensing process, the Law introduces two alternative facilitated routes to obtain required licenses and approvals (i) applying directly to the Investors Service Center (the Center) established at GAFI (art.21), a special unit to facilitate and simplify the licensing process; or (ii) using one of the private Accreditation Offices (art.22) authorized by GAFI and engaged by investors to review and confirm the completeness of their applications to obtain licenses. A chapter in Section III is dedicated to Free zones investment regime, in particular (i) projects in public Free Zones; and (ii) projects in privately-owned Free Zones, including related fees (art.41). Article 91 establishes the Egyptian Center for Arbitration and Mediation and an investor can choose to settle its dispute with other investors or with the Government before this center and according to its arbitration or mediation rules.