The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) has announced the results achieved by the initiative to simplify procedures for issuing environmental permits for industrial facilities, since its launch in February 2025.
The ministr6y said in a statement yesterday that since its launch, the initiative has processed more than a 1,000 requests through simplified pathways, without the need to go through basic environmental permitting procedures, in accordance with the approved environmental mechanisms and requirements.
The MoECC noted that applications that benefited from the simplification pathways constituted about 90% of the total applications covered by the two pathways (normal and simplified).
The ministry affirmed that these indicators reflect a tangible shift in the mechanism for dealing with requests, and the transition of the environmental permitting system to a more efficient and flexible model, based on the suitability of the level of procedures to the nature of the activity and the size of its potential environmental impacts, instead of subjecting different activities to the same level of procedures and requirements.
It explained that the initiative reclassified industrial activities according to their nature and environmental requirements, allowing the direct issuance of industrial licences for 861 industrial activities, representing 66% of the total activities, according to pre-defined environmental requirements, and without the need to obtain a prior environmental permit.
The MoECC noted that 257 industrial activities, representing 20% of the total activities, were exempted from environmental and operational permits, while the requirement to obtain a prior environmental permit was limited to 182 industrial activities, representing 14% of the total activities.
The ministry indicated that the number of applications that passed through the main environmental permitting track for industrial facilities with higher environmental impacts reached about 111 applications since the initiative was implemented.
It indicated that these requests are mainly based on heavy industries and large facilities with higher environmental impacts, including petrochemical industries, recycling, waste treatment, and other projects that require a more detailed environmental assessment before implementation and operation.
The ministry said that this approach represents a shift in work philosophy, from consuming technical resources in studying a wide range of low- and medium-impact activities, to focusing expertise and specialised evaluation on projects with higher environmental impacts.
It also underscored that indicators measuring the impact of the initiative showed a tangible improvement in the investor journey, as the average order completion time decreased from about 15 working days to only three, a decrease of 80%.
The MoECC highlighted the decrease in the number of procedures and steps required from the investor from seven main procedures to three procedures, a decrease of nearly 60%, which contributed to improving the investor's journey and raising the efficiency of service delivery.
It added that customer satisfaction levels exceeded 85%.
It indicated that the impact of the initiative was not limited to reducing procedures and completion times, but extended to achieving savings in time and administrative costs associated with doing business.