By: Mahmoud Salah El-Din

Cairo – Mubasher: Amr Fares, spokesman of both the Upper Egypt federation of investors and Kom Osheem investors association in Fayoum, said that due to government policies, a total of 70 factories with investments exceeding EGP 3 billion are threatened to close down in the Kom Osheem industrial zone in Fayoum.

The industrial zone’s board has presented to Fayoum Governor the problems facing these plants, which include an old and poor industrial waste disposal system, , Fares told Mubasher. He blamed the factories for this problem and said that they need to be penalised.

The zone houses 250 factories, of which only 70 are operational with a workforce of not more than 12,000 workers, the spokesman revealed, adding that the most important industries in the area are ceramics, sanitaryware, engineering and food industries.

Fares noted that plants have paid large sums to get land areas that are fully equipped with utilities; however, the installed industrial waste disposal system is highly inefficient.

He added that the current price per metre in the industrial area is EGP 500, one of the highest among industrial zones in Egypt.

The governor took the counsel of his associates and did not go to the industrial area or meet with any of the investors, Fares said.

Fayoum Governor Wael Mohamed Nabih recently issued a decision empowering the manager of Kom Osheem to take all the legal procedures, including closure, against factories that do not conform to technical specifications for the disposal of industrial.

Translated by: Nada Adel Sobhi