Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

Prime Minister Dr Mostafa Madbouly issued Decree No. 503 of 2026 on 25 February 2026, expanding the catalogue of industrial activities eligible for investment incentives under Egypt's Investment Law No. 72/2017 and linking them to Sector A / Sector B geographic classifications. Sector A projects (underserved areas, Upper Egypt, the New Administrative Capital, and economic zones) receive a 50% deduction of investment costs from net taxable profits over seven years, capped at 80% of paid-in capital; Sector B projects (remaining regions) receive a 30% deduction on the same terms. Newly designated priority activities include all automobile and vehicle categories (conventional and electric), electric motors and engines, refrigerator evaporators and compressors, sheet metal for electrical/electronic appliances, pipes and tubes, fruit/vegetable concentrates, and concentrated sulfuric acid. The decree consolidates and supersedes prior incentive decisions issued since 2022, deepening import-substitution and local-content pressure across automotive, electronics, and chemicals supply chains feeding Suez Canal Economic Zone investors and feeder-industry suppliers.

The Chongqing Municipal Government General Office issued Notice 渝府办发〔2026〕5号 on 2026-02-04, promulgating a "New Ten-Point Policy Supporting High-Quality Development of the Food and Agricultural Product Processing Industry," effective through 2028-12-31. The package includes up to CNY 200 million in funding for enterprises that establish national-level modern agricultural industrial parks or advantaged industrial clusters, directs 60%+ of fiscal steady-state assistance funds toward seven priority processing sub-sectors (grains/oils, meat/eggs/dairy, fruit/ vegetables/tea, leisure foods, condiments, hot-pot ingredients, Chinese medicinal materials), and subsidises new enterprise loans at up to 60% of the benchmark LPR (capped at CNY 2 million per enterprise), alongside a guarantee-fee cap of 0.6% for qualifying borrowers. Global Trade Alert flags the interest-subsidy component as the "Red" (most trade-distorting) intervention type.

On 16 January 2026 the Saudi Council of Ministers, via Cabinet Decision No. 468/1447 (issued 30 December 2025 / 9 Rajab 1447H), published in the Umm Al-Qura Official Gazette four sets of implementing regulations governing the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), Ras Al-Khair, Jazan, and Cloud Computing & IT Special Economic Zones. The regulations entered into force on 16 April 2026 (90 days after gazette publication) and operationalise the SEZ framework first launched by ECZA in April 2023. Each zone has its own standalone framework but they share a common headline tax package: 5% corporate income tax for up to 20 years, zero VAT on intra-SEZ and SEZ-import flows, customs-duty suspension on qualifying imports, withholding-tax exemption on dividends and approved cross-border payments, and exemption from key provisions of the Saudi Companies Law, Commercial Register Law, and Trade Names Law. KAEC focuses on advanced manufacturing, automotive, consumer goods, ICT and pharmaceuticals; Ras Al-Khair targets shipbuilding, offshore rigs and MRO; Jazan covers food processing, metals conversion and logistics for Africa-bound trade; the Cloud Computing SEZ is a virtual zone (data centres can sit anywhere in KSA, headquarters must be in Riyadh) for cloud and AI-compute workloads. The package is the operational implementation layer for the 2024 Investment Law and a core Vision 2030 FDI-attraction instrument.

On 9 January 2025, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani unveiled the Qatar National Manufacturing Strategy 2024–2030 alongside the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) sectoral strategy at the Qatar National Convention Centre. The manufacturing strategy targets raising sectoral value-add to QAR 70.5bn (~USD 19.4bn), lifting non-hydrocarbon industrial exports above QAR 49bn (~USD 13.5bn), attracting annual industrial investment of QAR 2.75bn (~USD 755m), and placing Qatar among the world's top 40 economies in the UNIDO Competitiveness Industrial Performance index by 2030. It is built on four transformative pillars: shift to smart and green manufacturing, R&D-led productivity uplift, alignment of education and training with industrial demand, and expansion of Qatari workforce participation (Qatarisation), delivered through 15 strategic initiatives and 60 projects.