NUCA Employees Reject Industrial Plots Supervision’s Decision

A number of employees at the New Urban Communities Authority “NUCA” asked the Minister of Housing to reverse his decision of transferring the supervision on industrial plots from the new cities apparatuses to the Industrial Development Authority. They suggested that the New Urban Communities Authority pursue its responsibility of the industrial plots in order to ensure that the planning and implementation will be fast and efficient, pointing out to the necessity of cancelling the cooperation protocol between the ministries of Housing and Industrial Development.

A source at the central Administration of the New Urban Communities Authority said the former regime was planning to make up fabricated crises, lay off many employees and tighten the facilities for investor in order to lead them to bankruptcy.  For example, the Qiz agreement was concluded in order to abuse the the capital of the investors, render them insolvent and end up closing their factories.

He explained that the cities apparatuses divided the industrial areas into groups according to the industry in which they are working. This helped to form integrated industrial communities and facilitated the industrial waste water treatment, which would, in turn, keep the sanitary sewer intact.

Moreover, he enumerated the negative aspects regarding assigning the Ministry of Industrial Development to the allocation of the investors’ plots in stead of the apparatuses of new cities. First of all, the Ministry of Industrial Development requires a letter of guarantee with an amount of money that might harm the investor’s budget, in addition to conducting a number of complicated procedures to seize as much money as possible from the investor.

The Negative points also include the fact that the Ministry of Industrial Development does set an accurate map to the sites of the factories and does not place the factories which work in similar industries in the same area to protect the environment.

The third point is that the Industrial Development Authority has sold plots with the same specifications at different prices. In other words, one company may buy the plot furnished with utilities at a cost of EGP 30 for the meter; another may get it without utilities at EGP 43 per meter and a third may get a plot with full utilities at EGP195 per meter.

For example, Ghabbourr Auto, located in Sadat City, received about 4 million flat meters at the so-called Industrial Developers area with Utilities from the Industrial Development Authority at a cost of EGP 30 per meter, while the actual cost of the meter is EGP 89. On the other hand, the Authority sold the same plots but without utilities at 43 per meter to companies such as Beshay Steel, Watanya for fertilizers, and Al Wadi for fertilizers.

Above all, the Authority’s procedures take so much time and that would in turn render the investor unwilling to invest in new cities.