Business Registration E-Platform: A Brighter Future for Egyptian Business

Updated 4/9/2024 8:00:00 AM

Egypt has taken a significant step towards boosting its business environment with the launch of a new e-platform for establishing companies.

This digital initiative, spearheaded by the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), aims to simplify procedures and attract both local and foreign investors.

This innovative initiative ushers in a new era of efficiency, transparency, and accessibility for entrepreneurs and investors.

Despite cybersecurity concerns, the platform is poised to catalyze economic growth by enticing foreign investment, boosting entrepreneurship, and simplifying the process of doing business in Egypt.

Business E-Registration: A Catalyst for Entrepreneurship

In August 2023, GAFI launched a digital platform allowing companies to be established electronically. The first digitally-streamlined process was the foundation of Damietta Company for Green Ammonia within the Damietta Free Zone.

The new platform eliminates several hurdles, enabling entrepreneurs to register their businesses entirely online. Acting as a catalyst, this offers numerous advantages for economic growth.

By simplifying the process of establishing companies, the initiative is expected to attract foreign investments and boost entrepreneurship.

Commenting on the launch of the e-platform, Nouran Elkhouly, Economist at CFI Financial Group, tells Arab Finance that “Egypt’s commitment to be a digitally-empowered nation by fostering digital transformation strengthens its position as a business-friendly nation globally.”

“This does not only reduce the barriers to entry but also spares investors time and cost,” Elkhouly adds.

“These are all excellent incentives for capital inflows into the Egyptian economy. In particular, a higher number of foreign investors would directly translate into increasing the country’s foreign reserves, helping ease Egypt’s main challenge,” she notes.

This comes as the new digital system is expected to “streamline the process of opening a business in Egypt and offer higher efficiency, accessibility, and transparency,” Elkhouly points out.

GAFI’s Chairman Hossam Heiba, stated last August, that Egypt could significantly improve its ranking on competitiveness and ease of doing business indexes by establishing a digital foundation for company formation.

Heiba also added back then that launching the incorporation service via the electronic portal is part of the GAFI’s plans to improve the quality of services provided to investors and adhere to the highest standards of competitiveness and transparency.

Additionally, he explained that investors will not face any manifestations of bureaucracy again or bear any additional burden, as the cost of electronic incorporation is equal to the cost of incorporation through investor service centers covering all parts of Egypt.

Addressing Cybersecurity Risks

While launching the platform brings benefits, it also may raise some concerns related to security, accessibility, and technical issues.

Salma Khaled Mokhtar, a cybersecurity engineer, tells Arab Finance that the e-platform might face a number of cybersecurity risks.

These risks include "potential hacking attempts on the platform's database, which may lead to leaking sensitive user information,” Mohktar explains.

“Such sensitive information could include identity data and financial account details, electronic fraud, insertion of malware into the platform aimed at spying on data or harming systems, malicious service attacks like distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), identity breaches, privacy violations, and phishing," she highlights.

Therefore, it is crucial to address cybersecurity concerns and ensure data privacy to gain investors’ trust, raise competitiveness, and obtain economic benefits.

Mokhtar explains that to ensure the confidentiality of data on the digital business registration platform, “data encryption is used during transmission across the network and while stored in databases.”

Moreover, Mokhtar adds that more measures should be considered, such as “using strong encryption protocols like SSL/TLS, which help protect data from being leaked on the Internet.

Ensuring permission to access data should be determined on a need-to-know basis, wherein permissions are allocated based on roles and responsibilities, granting designated users access only to sensitive data.”

Additionally, it is important to implement effective protection measures, provide appropriate training to employees on cybersecurity practices, and conduct periodic reviews of security policies and protection technologies used on the platform, according to Mokhtar.

The launch of Egypt's online platform for company registration marks a significant step towards a more dynamic and investor-friendly business environment.

By streamlining the process and eliminating bureaucratic hurdles, the platform has the potential to unlock a wave of entrepreneurship and attract much-needed foreign investment.

The road ahead for Egypt's business landscape looks promising. With continued dedication to digital transformation and a focus on enhancing user experience and security, this new online platform has the potential to be a game-changer, propelling Egypt towards a brighter economic future.

By Sarah Samir