MP says no plan 17 months after Ras Shuqair land went to finance ministry

Mohamed Fouad, an economist and member of the Egyptian parliament's economic affairs committee, says a presidential decree issued on 4 June 2025 transferred 174 million square metres of land at Ras Shuqair to the finance ministry to reduce public debt and support the issue of sovereign sukuk, and that 17 months later there is still no operational plan or even a preliminary framework for it.

He was speaking about the recent allocation of 112 million square metres in the Red Sea region to the same ministry, which he said follows the Ras Shuqair pattern and raises the same questions. A presidential decree amending an earlier decree set that area at about 26,690.45 feddans, or 112,122,142 square metres, of state-owned land in Red Sea Governorate, to be used in reducing public debt. Fouad put the new area at roughly 60% of the size of the Ras Shuqair land.

Fouad said he has submitted a formal inquiry seeking the details of the 112 million square metre allocation, the status of the Ras Shuqair land, the arrangements made for it and what has been achieved there so far. He also asked where the money to pay returns on sovereign sukuk would come from while the land is not yet operating and earning nothing, and said parliament can hold the government and the responsible minister to account for how the land is managed and what it returns.

His objection, he said, is not to using state assets or to the financial transactions themselves but to knowing what they earn, and he pointed to the Ras el-Hekma and Alam al-Roum deals as well as other arrangements along the Red Sea coast. "The issue isn't just whether the land is being sold or not; the economic implications are what matter most. Are we actually solving the problem, or are we merely postponing it?" he told the television host Amr Adib on Saturday. He argued for putting state assets to work on projects that earn lasting revenue rather than financing deals aimed only at repaying debt.