In 9 August 2015, after three days from the inauguration of the New Suez Canal, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi issued Decree No. 330/2015 declaring the areas adjacent to the Suez Canal as a special economic zone (the “SCZone Decree”). This zone shall be governed by Law no. 83 of 2002 on Special Economic Zones (“Special Economic Zone Law” or “Law 83/2002”) and its Executive Regulations issued by virtue of the Prime Ministerial Decree no. 1625 of 2002.

During the latest decades, women in modern Egypt have proven significant role and importance in all aspects of life and were one of the direct generators for the development in the Egyptian society.
Under Egyptian law, women are granted a wide range of rights and protective provisions in many aspects. This report will give an overview of the main rights confirmed to women under the various Egyptian laws and regulations.

Our partner Eman Riad, Head of the Labor & Employment Law team, gave a lecture on labor laws and regulations in Egypt.

The Minister of Trade and Industry in Egypt has issued new regulations to establish a new registration system for factories and companies qualified to export their products to Egypt. Such regulations shall apply to specific products including, inter alia, textile products, food, electrical, health and beauty products, sanitary ware, toys, tableware, lighting and steel. Officials said that the reason behind the issuance of the Decrees is to reform the Egyptian importation system and protect domestic consumers from low quality goods. From another perspective, the Egyptian Government is trying to slow demand for foreign exchange by imposing special restrictions on some imported products.

The foreign currency market in Egypt has witnessed dramatic developments since the start of the 25 January 2011 uprising, the pound began to fall against the dollar and the availability of the foreign currency dropped. In 2012, the CBE started to use the auction mechanism to trade USD with Egyptian banks in order to provide foreign currency liquidity and stabilize the market by increasing the USD offer. This was considered as a step towards free-floating the pound. Dollar prices jumped to its highest records.
From a strict legal standpoint, there are no statutory foreign currency controls in Egypt. However, in practice, the Central Bank of Egypt imposed several measures to face the lack of supply and increased demand on foreign currency. The CBE has issued several directives to reduce the gap between exchange rates and prices on the official and black market.