The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) has stopped granting licenses for new tuk tuk assembling and manufacture plants in Egypt, as part of the government’s efforts to curb the spread of tuk tuks on the streets, an official source with the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.
The source told Youm7 that this decision comes in conjunction with procedures to reduce tuk tuk imports, adding that five plants for the assembly and manufacture of tuk tuks in Egypt that have been licensed by the IDA.
The number of licensed tuk tuks are 211,000, according to Youm7, while the average number of tuk tuks in Egypt ranges from 2.5 to 3 million vehicles, according to the statistics of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics.
Former Minister of Trade and Industry Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour issued a decree in 2014 banning the importation of tuk tuks and components, but later backtracked on the decision and allowed the import of production inputs and spare parts in accordance to a set of regulations.
In April 2017, former Minister of Industry Tariq Qabeel renewed the decision to banning the import of fully-made tuk tuks. He also decided to export all produced tuk tuks in free zones and banned their sale on the local market.
