Sisi reiterates firm stance on squatters during press meeting

CAIRO – 17 May 2017: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi said Tuesday that the emergency law, recently approved by the Parliament, will be decisively applied to land transgressions.

Sisi’s statements came during a meeting with the editor-in-chiefs of state-run newspapers Al-Ahram, Al-Gomhuria, and Akhbar Al-Youm.

During his speech, Sisi said that those who will resort to violence to resist the law will be confronted by force. He said that the outcomes of campaigns against squatters on state lands will be announced in an extended conference by the end of May.

On Saturday, Sisi ordered the army and police to investigate adverse possession of land? and reclaim the illegally acquired state lands, during his visit to the Qena governorate.

Upon his instructions, the Ministry of Interior launched on Monday a security campaign to reclaim state land seized illegally in Upper Egypt.
On the same issue, Sisi said that the armed forces are the only authority that has not witnessed land transgressions. Adverse possession of land has existed in Egypt for years. There are, however, no official statistics to show how much land is actually involved.

New measures to protect low-income citizens
He announced that tax exemptions will be doubled, among new measures that will be adopted within weeks, in order to protect middle class and low-income citizens.
During the dialogue, he assured that he is always open to listen to people’s problems, citing elderly man “Hamam Ali” who interrupted Sisi’s speech on Sunday, complaining that residents affected from new projects carried out in his village were not compensated. He said addressing Sisi “what officials are telling you is wrong.”

Sisi added during a Monday meeting: “we must admit that we have many shortcomings in the state facilities and services.”

He also said that in January or February next year, he will announce a detailed account on what has been achieved since he assumed power in June 2014.
He revealed that a total of 100 billion EGP has been spent within the last three years to upgrade infrastructure, including roads with a combined length of 7,000 km, linking main cities together.

He added that the state will gain $3.6 billion annually when the new gas fields start their production. Last week, BP started gas production from the Taurus and Libra fields in its West Nile Delta development off Egypt’s coast. They are producing 700 million standard cubic feet of gas a day to the Egyptian national gas grid.