Green building is essential in light of urban expansion and we have a target to design sustainability policies: Dr. Assem Al-Jazzar, Minister of Housing
Dr. Assem El-Gazzar, Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, said that Egypt is implementing the largest construction plan in its history, and applicable policies and rules are being developed in the field of green construction and sustainable cities on the ground.
The state cooperated with the private sector in the development of projects with investments of 101 trillion Egyptian pounds
The Minister of Housing added that the challenges of climate change are very dangerous, notably, desertification, water scarcity, and agricultural production.
“Green construction is a very essential matter, in light of the large urban expansion at the level of the Egyptian state, and a large number of different kinds of facilities that have been and are being carried out, and within the framework of achieving the outputs of the national strategic plan for urban development, with urban expansion and doubling the area of the globe are the significant outputs.”, he explained.
The Minister of Housing explained that the goal of the new cities is not only to absorb the population increase but rather the main goal is to open new economic development areas, because the existing construction has become unable to support its residents economically.
The Green Pyramid
The Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund cooperates with the World Bank and the Housing and Building National Research Center (HBRC) to construct 25000 units accredited by the Green Pyramid Rating System (GPRS)
The Social Housing and Real Estate Finance Support Fund, in cooperation with the World Bank and the Housing and Building National Research Center (HBRC), launched the Green Architecture Initiative to implement 25000 housing units accredited by the Green Pyramid Rating System (GPRS) for social housing, in four cities (Capital Gardens, New Obour, New Aswan, Hurghada).
The state is interested in providing civilized housing that delivers the highest level of quality of life for citizens
Dr. Assem Al-Jazzar reiterated that the state is interested in implementing civilized housing that provides the highest level of quality of life for citizens.
Partnership with the private sector
Assem Al-Jazzar, Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities, said that the state has implemented projects in partnership with 67 private developers on an area of 13000 acres in fourth-generation cities, with investments amounting to 101 trillion Egyptian pounds.
The number of ministerial decisions on launching projects has multiplied 10 times
“The state’s share of these projects is EGP 311 billion, and they provide about 200000 job opportunities.”, he added.
The Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities aims to increase the number of plots of land allocated per month to 100 plots, with returns ranging from EGP100 to 120 billion
The Ministry of Housing, through the New Urban Communities Authority, is currently allocating an average of 50 plots of land per month with an average area of 2000 acres, (600 plots annually) for investment in various activities, and it is targeted to increase the number of offered investment plots to 100 plots per month, with returns of EGP100-120 billion, in order to give the private sector a greater opportunity to participate in the development process.
Housing units
Al-Jazzar said that the total number of housing units that were provided from 2014 to 2022 amounted to 2.8 million units, of which the state provided 1.2 million units, 72% of which are directed to alternative housing for slums and low-income housing, while the private sector provided 1.6 million units during the same period.
“These figures confirm that there is no competition with the private sector, as 1800 contracting companies cooperated with the state in implementing its units, with the total assignment orders for housing units exceeding 560 billion Egyptian pounds, which provided 1.5 million direct job opportunities and 2.7 million indirect job opportunities.” He said.
He also explained that these investments are directed to companies and workers, as these projects consumed 9 million tons of iron, which represents 15% of production in that period, and about 30 million tons of cement, in addition to the rest of the building materials.
There is a plan to construct 950000 units over the next three years, which will provide about 105 million direct job opportunities
The Minister of Housing indicated that it is targeted to implement, during the next 3 years, other 950,000 units, and 1500 companies will work in their implementation, with a total investment of 450 billion Egyptian pounds, providing 1.2 million direct job opportunities and 2.2 million indirect job opportunities.
About 6 million tons of steel, 20 million tons of cement, 75 million m2 of ceramics, 3 million pieces of sanitary ware, 9000 air conditioners, 20 million doors and windows, and 20,000 elevators will be used.
Volume of investments
The Minister of Housing explained that the rate of issuing ministerial decisions for projects has increased significantly with the aim of accelerating investment rates, as previously about 14 decisions were issued per year, while 210 ministerial decisions were issued for projects within 10 months from the beginning of this year until now, with an increase of 10 times.
One trillion and 20 billion Egyptian pounds were pumped during the past seven years
“The volume of investments pumped by the Ministry of Housing during the past ٧ years amounted to one trillion and 20 billion Egyptian pounds, to implement more than 17,000 projects by 2000 companies.” He said.
The Minister of Housing reiterated that the efforts of investors must be combined with the efforts of the state in order to bring about a qualitative leap in the tourism development sector, which requires a clear vision on the part of investors to double the development movement.
“Promoting the tourism sector is the fastest way to bring about economic recovery and raise growth rates.”, he concluded.
