Businessman Hisham Talaat Moustafa, CEO and Managing Director of Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG), participated on Tuesday in the “Real Estate Wealth and Ways of Development and Increasing the Contribution of Private Sector” session at the Egyptian Economic Conference 2022.
The conference aims to agree on a roadmap for the economic situation of the Egyptian state during the coming periods, and to propose clear policies and measures that contribute to increasing the competitiveness and flexibility of the Egyptian economy.
Moustafa began his speech by praising the role of the state, represented by the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities, in accelerating the pace of urban development during the past years.
He further praised its role in supporting the real estate sector during the past three years, which witnessed huge challenges, starting with emerging COVI-19 pandemic, to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, which contributed to regularity of real estate development rates in partnership with the private sector.
He presented the role of TMG in the real estate development industry in Egypt, and pointed out that the group succeeded in developing 15,000 feddan of residential land, which contributed to the provision of 150,000 housing units accommodating 650,000 people from different segments of society, equivalent to the same size of Singapore.
He highlighted the role of the state in the success achieved by TMG, by offering lands in partnership with the group in East Cairo, which contributed to the provision of housing units, and at the same time achieving a return to the state.
Moustafa noted that the contract that the company concluded with the government in 2010 to establish Madinaty was at EGP 9.9bn, and the final account of the company’s payments to the Ministry of Housing by paying 85% of the company’s dues, exceeded EGP 60bn.
TMG chief identified 3 recommendations to achieve urban development during the coming period, which is first, the expansion of mortgage financing systems and facilitating mechanisms for benefiting from it. He added that revitalizing mortgage financing will encourage foreign investors to direct huge investments to establish housing projects and huge health and tourism projects in Egypt, especially since Egypt needs 30 million housing units during the next 30 years, which requires stimulating the private sector to participate with the state in achieving this goal.
He explained that the second recommendation is to complete the development of the legislative environment, on top of which is the Occupants Union Law, explaining the importance of this legislation to ensure the continuity of the urban development process.
Third, imposing small business fees on all industry materials to launch a fund to support long-term interest rates to ease financial burdens on the state, estimating that the fund would succeed in achieving nearly EGP 1trn in its first year, according to Moustafa.
He concluded, “An integrated study was prepared on the Interest Rate Support Fund, and it was presented to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Housing Assem Al-Gazzar, and Central Bank Governor Hassan Abdallah.
