"Stopping building permits means continuing to stop our situation and exacerbating the financial burdens on contractors," thus Sherif describes the recent decisions issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Local Development, to set off a storm of controversy within the contracting sector.
As of last May 24, for a period of 6 months, the Ministry of Local Development issued a decision to stop issuing licenses for building, expanding, expanding, modifying, or supporting private housing construction works, while stopping the construction work being carried out in Greater Cairo and Alexandria Governorate, capitals of governorates, and major cities.
The decision came at the request of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi during his inauguration of a national project, which also called on the police to arrest building offenders and not be content with unlawful violations against them, in an attempt to stop indiscriminate construction and adhere to the country's development plan.
But the engineer Sharif - who is also the owner of a contracting company - believes that the decision means a complete paralysis of a wide sector that includes millions of families, which increases the scale of suffering, especially since the sector has not yet recovered from the negative economic effects of the Corona virus.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Sharif indicated that most of the economic and industrial activities in Egypt are based on contracting works, as it is the only source of livelihood for a wide sector of craftsmen and workers, asking, "Where do we get the daily expenses under the current conditions?"
About 12 million Egyptians work in the contracting sector, as well as about 20,000 companies between large, medium and small, in addition to building material dealers, according to press statements in April of the President of the Egyptian Federation for Construction and Building Contractors Mohamed Sami.
During a session in the House of Representatives on the implications of the decision, the Minister of Local Development, Major General Mahmoud Shaarawi said that the suspension of licenses aims to firmly address building violations that cause pressure on facilities that were not planned to accommodate the violating buildings, as well as the spread of corruption in building permits.
The suffering of daily workers
Like most construction workers arriving in Cairo, Sayed sits in his usual place in Mataria Square, east of the capital, waiting for an opportunity for temporary work, as contracting companies hire them in non-professional physical works.
Sayed - who left his family in Minya Governorate in Upper Egypt - told Al-Jazeera Net that "the Corona virus affected us greatly, especially as business owners are afraid to engage in any activity, which made the work almost stopped during the recent period."
Syed Mishqa endured work interruption during the last period due to the Corona virus, in the hope that the gradual opening of economic activity will contribute to his return to his only source of livelihood, but the decision to suspend construction permits for 6 months came as a knockout to his hopes, and he does not know what he will do during these long months.
House ruin
A number of deputies submitted requests for briefing on the decision, among them a member of the Local Administration Committee, MP Suleiman Al-Omeiri, who considered the decision null and constitutional and legal.
Al-Omairi explained in his request that the decision harms a wide sector of Egyptians that includes irregular workers, engineers, and contractors, passing by workers in the raw materials market, such as bricks, iron, and steel, until the finishes tools, such as electricity, plumbing, and even furniture and furnishings.
During a session of the Local Administration Committee in the House of Representatives and in the presence of the Minister of Local Development, many deputies objected to the decision, while some demanded that exceptions be made, especially with the existence of the Reconciliation Law in the contravention.
Representative Abdel Hamid Kamal stressed that the decision is negative, as society and the owners of legal centers were affected by it, and caused an increase in the unemployment rate, adding that "the treatment must be explicit and clear, and the retreat is not a defect, and the minister must reconsider the decision."
A member of the local administration committee, Representative Issam Idris, said that more than 70% of the community’s sects are affected by the decision to stop building permits. “I appeal to the minister to reconsider the decision because people have ruined their homes because of him,” he said.
Fathallah Fawzi, Vice President of the Egyptian Businessmen Association and Chairman of the Construction Committee in the Association, revealed that the association submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly to allow the continuation of all the licenses issued in conjunction with the due review, taking the necessary legal measures towards the violating projects, and developing the licensing system.
Fawzi added in press statements that the decision will harm the real estate sector, which contributes approximately 18% of the gross domestic product, in addition to harming the investments that were pumped into the real estate sector, especially foreign ones, and will also affect the state's tax benefits from the real estate sector and its related sectors.
A necessary decision
However, on the other hand, there are those who support the decision until the violations are detected, especially with the high rates of building violations in Egypt, which is defended by the economist Wael Al-Nahhas.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Nahhas says that there is a large sector of construction companies with a rate of up to 90% working in national projects, while a limited number of them work in the private sector, which means that a small sector is affected by the decision to stop private construction activity, and the state can support projects For these companies until the examination of the licenses granted and to ensure that there are no breaching buildings.
Al-Nahhas believes that the real estate sector is already suffering from the recession for a long time, due to the low demand for real estate due to high prices, lack of liquidity and the stopping of buying and selling, meaning that the decision to stop the licenses will not affect much of the sector that is already stagnating.
He pointed out that the violating construction had a role in raising real estate prices during the last period, which negatively affected the buying and selling process, whose rates reached about 286 thousand real estate units annually, a very limited number indicating weak demand for real estate, which gives the state the right In reviewing the position of those companies in general.
He pointed out that the decision also has economic dimensions related to the economic crisis that the country is witnessing during the recent period, which requires not pumping money on bricks and tiles, but keeping them in light of the lack of clarity of the picture of the end of the economic crisis resulting from the Corona virus and its repercussions.
Military trials
It is striking that the decision to suspend licenses was also accompanied by a decision to try violators before the military courts, and it is strange that it was retroactive, as the security forces launched a campaign against the violating buildings and arrested dozens.
This prompted Parliament member Haitham Al-Hariri to submit a request to brief the government on the two decisions, explaining that he is with the state in confronting the illegal construction, but that the civilian citizens are tried before their natural judge and not before the military courts, adding, "This decision should not be applied retroactively."
Hariri asked denouncing, "Are such decisions in the interest of the economy or in the interest of the country? The government has always raised the slogan of no negative sanctions for freedoms with investors and prefers financial fines, are not these contractors who support the government in all of the previous electoral benefits, and donated millions to pay simple citizens to participate in The electoral process? ".