Doing Business in Egypt 2008

Subnational Data

Select a city Alexandria Assiut Cairo

Select a topic Starting a Business Dealing with Construction Permits Registering Property

Also available in Arabic

Author: Subnational Doing Business
Published: December 8, 2007

(535 KB PDF)

Download Now

Overview

Doing Business in Egypt 2008 measures the ways in which government regulations enhance business activity or restrain it at the subnational level. The report studies 3 Doing Business topics—starting a business, dealing with licenses, and registering property—within 3 Egyptian cities—Alexandria, Assiut, and Cairo. These indicators cover areas of governorate (province) or district jurisdiction and practice.

The report found Egypt’s improving business climate was evident at the local level. It also found wide variations in the time and number of procedures required due to differences in local regulations and implementations of national law.

Main Findings

• Throughout Egypt, builders faced bureaucracy in getting construction permits. In Assiut, construction permit-related activities require 19 procedures and 109 days; in Alexandria 30 procedures and 207 days; and in Cairo, 28 procedures and 249 days.
• Local officials could learn from each other by adopting good regulations and practices that already exist elsewhere in the country. If Cairo were to adopt Assiut’s speedy property registration processes, for example, the time to register property would drop from 193 to 33 days, just slightly longer than Austria or Chile.
• In the previous 2 years, doing business in Egypt has became more affordable, though the cost remained relatively high compared internationally.