90 presidential palaces and new government headquarters .. Is Egypt rich or poor ?!

Doaa Abdel Latif-Cairo

Claiming that Egypt is a very poor country, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offers the rationale for the deteriorating economic situation and the austerity measures adopted by the Authority, but the huge government spending in several areas, including the construction of presidential palaces and government headquarters reveals that austerity tastes exclusively for the poor.

Finally, Cairo announced the near completion of the construction of two new presidential palaces, one of which will be taken by the Authority winter headquarters in the administrative capital and the other summer in the new city of El Alamein, west of Alexandria, so Sisi will have winter and summer trips, to rule the country from inside the desert palace in winter, and on the shore of the Mediterranean in summer.

This expansion of the presidential palaces is taking place despite the existence of 90 palaces and a break for the president distributed among different provinces, including eight historic palaces.

The administrative capital is about forty kilometers away from the federal palace, where Sisi is currently in charge of governance, while El-Alamain Palace is about an hour away from Mohamed Naguib's presidential break and from Alexandria's Montazah Palace.

Not only that, last month, the Egyptian government opened a new headquarters in the new city of El Alamein to run state affairs during the summer months.

contradiction
The construction of presidential and government headquarters in the summer and winter comes in conjunction with the widening of poverty among Egyptians and the statements of officials on the need to withstand the austerity measures and the so-called economic reform, including the lifting of subsidies on fuel.

At the end of July, Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced that poverty rates in the country increased to 32.5% of the population by the end of the fiscal year 2017/2018, compared to 27.8% in 2015/2016.

A report by the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics revealed that about 46 villages in Upper Egypt, where the poverty rate ranges between 80% to 100%.

With the spread of poverty, the Egyptian government continues to borrow from abroad. The Central Bank announced that Egypt's foreign debt rose by $ 13.6 billion to reach $ 106.2 billion at the end of March, compared with June last year.

The country's total domestic public debt rose 20.25 percent year-on-year to 4.108 trillion pounds ($ 241.9 billion) at the end of December.

Faced with the economic and living deterioration of Egyptians, the presidency spends about six billion pounds - equivalent to $ 400 million - an annual expenditure of wages and salaries of workers and renovations and equipment for buildings, and this figure does not include the cost of building palaces.

While the cost of building palaces and government headquarters has not been announced, the cost of building the new administrative capital is about $ 51 billion, while the new city of El Alamein is about $ 3 billion.

The expenses of presidential palaces and government headquarters are not limited to the cost of construction. There are insurance expenses and workers' wages even in the absence of those responsible.

Absent censorship
Dr. Mustafa Shahin, a professor of economics at the University of Auckland, expressed surprise at the announcement of the Egyptian regime news of building palaces and government headquarters in light of the deteriorating economic situation in the country.

He denounced not there modesty of the conditions of the poor to spread this extravagance? He warned against the worsening of the economic crisis because of the current policies of the Authority.

He explained to Al Jazeera Net that the authority in developed countries take the opinion of citizens on issues simpler than building palaces, adding, "In American cities are raised topics paving streets or building a swimming pool for the referendum, as well as the way to spend on projects, whether by raising taxes or borrowing."

He attributed the Shaheen - in his talk to the island Net - building the presidential and government headquarters despite the economic crisis of the absence of regulatory institutions, because of the dependence of parliament on the ruling authority and implementation of its instructions.

In turn, former parliamentarian Dr. Ezzedine El-Koumi described the construction of presidential palaces at the present time provocative behavior of the people, considering the administrative capital and the new science castles new Sisi and his men.

He told Al-Jazeera Net that "the current authority restores the system of castles adopted by the Mamluk rule of Egypt centuries ago to fortify the enemies," adding that Sisi is immunized from the people to be immune from any revolutions.

As for the priorities that Egypt needs, such as spending on health and education and increasing the salaries of employees, these things do not concern the system, as El-Koumi believes.

El-Koumi added that "Sisi is living in a state of paranoia, building palaces and castles to prove the elements of his authoritarian rule."