3.4.1 Public Free Zones
Public Free Zones consist of different investment projects set up to take advantage of the provided incentives and privileges. Required infrastructure is done through the Sate. There are nine Public Free Zones in Egypt located in Alexandria, Cairo, Port Said, Suez, Ismailia, Damietta, Shebeen Al-Koum, Qeft, and the Media Zone in 6th of October City in Giza. All these zones are not specialised in a certain industry/service except for the Media Zone. GAFI is seeking to expand by establishing three new public zones, which are: Badr City, El Minya, and Nuweiba in South Sinai.

3.4.2 Private Free Zones
There are around 164 projects in Egypt working under Private Free Zones. This system is allocated to single investment projects depending on their nature. For instance, a project that requires a certain location, i.e. near the source of raw material or consistent with the project’s activity such as the cases in maritime transport projects and cement silos, or projects that take part in developing new urban areas according to the State's plan. Projects established under this system have the same privileges and incentives as the ones under Public Free Zones; in addition, administrative supervision is done by the closest Public Free Zone. Any project can be transformed to work under the Private Free Zones system if its exports are not less than 50% of its production.

3.4.3 Specialized Economic Zones (SEZs)
As an ongoing effort for facilitating and encouraging investment, Egypt is to establish an economic zone, Golden Triangle Economic Zone. It will be built on an area of 2.2 million feddans in Upper Egypt, spanning along the cities of Safa and Quseir with a base at the Upper Egyptian city of Qena. The Golden Triangle Economic Zone aims to attract global mining investors. It is the first and only economic zone which main objective is to utilize foreign investment, develop industries especially high technology ones.

3.4.4 Industrial Zones
There are more than 120 industrial zones in all Egypt’s 27 governorates. In addition to industrial zones in new urban community cities and heavy industrial zones.
Incentives and benefits are summarized by type of zone, in the table below:
Table 2: Summary of Incentives/ Benefits by Type of Zone

Topic	Industrial Zone	Free Zone	Special Economic Zone
Income Tax	Standard rate 20% (oil & gas = 40.55%)	Storage: 1% of total value of incoming goods	10% of profits for all activities
	10 years exemption for land cultivation, animal, poultry & fish production	Industrial project: 1% of value added on outgoing goods
		Industrial project: 1% of value added on outgoing goods
Import Duties	Depending on product: ranging 2-32%	Duty free	Duty free
Export Duties/ Sales Tax	Ranging from 5-25% of value of sales transactions	Duty free when exported outside Egypt	Duty free when exported outside Egypt
		Duty free on domestic components when sold in Egypt	Duty free on domestic components when sold in Egypt
		10% of value of non-domestic components when sold in Egypt	Components when sold in Egypt 10% of value of non-domestic
Payroll Tax	Ranging from 10-20% depending on salary level	Ranging from 10-20% depending on salary level	5% for all salary levels
Export Minimum	No minimum	Ranging from 50-80% depending on zone board or GAFI	Depending on zone board

Source: GAFI.

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