Industry

Egypt has a well-established system of special zones, industrial zones and free zones, overseen primarily by the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI). The current zones system was established in 1997 and includes 10 public free zones clustered in and around Cairo, Alexandria and in areas close to Cairo’s waterways.

Sourcing natural gas is one of the chief obstacles for Egypt’s heavy industries, as shortages have persisted since 2014 (see Energy chapter). Gas is sold through the state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), which has prioritised supply to the power sector and residential consumers. This has left industrial buyers facing...

Egypt’s foreign exchange troubles throughout 2015-16 have sparked intense debate in the automotive industry, where the challenges have led to multiple reform proposals to shore up a troubled area of the country’s industrial production. Concerns peaked in April 2015, when Mercedes-Benz announced a partial exit, claiming it would continue to...

With a market of 92m consumers and growing, Egypt is a natural fit for manufacturing industries. An estimated 1.2m Egyptians work in textiles, for example, and the plastics sector alone provides 500,000 jobs. Egypt is also home to energy-intensive industries such as cement, steel and petrochemicals manufacturing. As a result, the sector spans...

Egypt’s retail market is competitive and highly fragmented. The maturing formal retail sector features a range of shopping malls, supermarkets, hypermarkets and smaller franchised competitors, as well as the more informal options that have traditionally served Egypt’s shopping needs, such as souqs, street vendors, independent high-street shops...