Egypt will now allow businesses to open without a physical headquarters, following a directive from President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
Virtual companies, or e-companies, will be able to set up shop through a government platform, though that has not yet been announced, local media Daily News Egypt reported.
Egypt is making business setup easier and cheaper for start-ups and entrepreneurs. The move comes as the North African country is increasingly turning to entrepreneurship as a means to boost its economy.
In Egypt, 11.3 percent of adults in 2020 were actively setting up a business that had been established within the last 3.5 years, according to a Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report from 2021. That compares to 6.7 percent in 2019. Nearly 57 percent of Egyptians who weren’t entrepreneurs said they were interested in starting a business.
“Most of the technological innovations in Egypt take place in early-stage companies, with a visible gap in innovation between Egyptian established businesses and global/regional ones. Amidst COVID-19, more early-stage businesses in Egypt (29.3 percent) make use of new technology, compared to 11.5% of the established companies,” the GEMS report found.
Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Rady said that President Sisi also directed the expansion of the establishment of free investment technology zones, the expansion of tax exemptions for start-up companies, and the activation of whitelists to import electronic components for specialised companies, local media reported.
