Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a presidential decree on Wednesday to remove the status of public benefit from lands and buildings belonging to 13 ministries in downtown Cairo, including the headquarters of several of the most important sovereign and service ministries.
The decree included transferring the entire ownership of these lands and buildings to the Egyptian Sovereign Fund, in accordance with the fund’s law.
It allows the president to issue decisions to remove the status of public benefit from some state property and transfer it to the fund, in preparation for disposing of it in various ways, such as development, sale, lease, offering for usufruct, investment, or partnership – as has happened before with the lands and buildings of the Tahrir Complex, the dissolved National Party, and the old Ministry of Interior building on Sheikh Reihan Street.
The president’s decree stipulates that the aforementioned ministries will continue to occupy the buildings free of charge, until they finally move to the New Administrative Capital or when they find alternative headquarters for their current buildings.
The list of ministries that will be moved include:
- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs building on the Nile Corniche in Maspero.
- The Ministry of Justice building in Lazoghly.
- The General Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance in Lazoghly.
- The Ministry of Education building on Falaky Street in front of Saad Zaghloul’s mausoleum.
- The Ministry of Health and Population building on Parliament Street in front of the House of Representatives building.
- The residential units occupied by the Ministry of Local Development in Garden City.
- The Ministry of Transport building on the Nile Corniche near Qasr Al-Aini.
- The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities building on Adel Abu Bakr Street in Zamalek.
- The Ministry of Military Production building in the palace located in front of Saad Zaghloul’s mausoleum.
- The Ministry of Supply building on Qasr Al-Aini Street.
- The old Ministry of Social Solidarity building on Sheikh Reihan Street near the Senate.
- The Ministry of Housing building on Soliman Abaza Street, a branch of Qasr Al-Aini Street.
- The Green Trade Initiative of the Ministry of Industry on Qasr Al-Aini Street in front of the Agricultural Bank near Tahrir Square.
