Doing Business in Egyptian

Doing Business in Egypt

Dealing with Construction Permits

Many countries around the world have modernized their bureaucratic workflow to ease issuing of construction permits as it is a platform to critical economic activities. In this regard, Egypt is still lagging behind ranking 163 out of 181 in 2008 and, much worse, 165 in 2009 (DoingBusiness.org).

Having a quick glance on construction permit procedures, we can realize the great deal of delay in time, let alone efforts, that an application could consume. Besides, relatively high taxes are imposed throughout processing these permits and this lays a financial burden on citizens' income. Although some procedures can be done simultaneously with another ones, the overall time period is still long. For example, the final step, which is registering the building with the real estate registry, takes 75 days and couldn't be achieved simultaneously and so receiving inspection and obtaining Civil Defense's clearance which takes 60 days.

On the other hand, although relevant regulations are the same in all Egyptian governorates, completing a construction permit differs in time and the number of procedures from a governorate to another. In Assuit, it takes 109 days and encompasses 19 procedures while it takes place in 249 days and includes 28 procedures in Cairo (Al-Hayat Newspaper, 2007).

However, according to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, construction permits have increased by 21% in 2008 (news.egypt.com). This reflects the influence of the construction boom in Egypt but it doesn't deny the existence of the problem.

Legislatively, Al-Shoura Counsil confirmed the new construction low which is considered another amendment to the 1976 low. The law was passed in March 2008. One of this amendment's objectives is decreasing procedures and time consumed to get construction permits through establishing one-window applying system (Egypt State Information Service, 2009). Ironically, Egypt's rank is lower in 2009 list than it in...