Egypt Parliament Daily Brief

CAIRO – 16 May 2018: With a busy day in Parliament (House of Representatives) over, Egypt Today provides a comprehensive wrap up of the Egyptian Parliament’s proceedings for the day.

Parliament approves draft law regulating street food carts

The Egyptian parliament approved on Monday a draft law to regulate the operation of food carts in Egypt. The draft law would end the problem facing governmental authorities over effective mechanisms that seek to organize this informal business.

The draft law, presented by Member of Parliament Mohamed Ali Youssef, head of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) Committee in the parliament, allows the sale, preparation and cooking of food from mobile food units under a license issued by the local administration authorities and the bodies concerned with the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA).

Social Housing

According to the new social housing law, a Social Housing Fund will be established affiliated with the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities. The fund will be considered a public service authority with several official offices in all of the country’s governorates.

The fund, according to the new law, will be responsible for providing low-income housing units in the areas that will be selected by the government. The government is expected to issue another detailed law following the final approval explaining the needed criteria and conditions for applying to have these housing units. The law will ban each family from having more than just one unit.

‘Egypt Support’ community dialogue on the pharmaceutical factories issue and the business sector law launches

Tuesday saw the launch of the community dialogue session on the issue of pharmaceutical factories and Law 203 that organizes the private sector, organized by the ‘Egypt Support’ coalition in their headquarters in the Fifth Settlement, Cairo.

Participating in the community dialogue, Chaired by Engineer Ahmed Samir, Chairman of the Industry Committee of the Parliament, in the presence of MP Mohamed Mohie El-Din, Deputy of the Industry Committee of the Parliament, a large number of pharmaceutical companies owners, including representatives of the Holding Company for the Pharmaceutical Industry, and representatives of the private sector companies discussed the most pertinent issues on the table.

The move comes within the framework of Egypt's support plan for the participation of civil society in the discussion of laws as a key partner in this issue.

Parliament approves "reconciliation in cases of building voilations" in principle

The Housing Committee, Chaied by Engineer Moataz Mahmoud, agreed Tuesday in principle to the draft law on reconciliation in building violations. However, a number of articles of the draft law, including the fines set, will remain under discussion during the next few meetings. It is worth mentioning that the article setting the fine amounts as of right now reads, “For reconciliation a fine should be paid at the based on the cost per meter of the surface area, as set out by Minister of Housing and Urban Facilities.”

Draft law on the protection of manuscripts approved

The Committee on Culture, Information and Antiquities of the House of Representatives in a meeting, chaired by Member of Parliament Osama Heikal, approved the draft law submitted by the government on the amendment of some provisions of Law No. 8 of 2009 on the protection of manuscripts.

According to the text of the draft law, the amendment included Article 1, which deals with the definition of manuscripts, and reads, “everything without handwriting before the printing age, whatever its form, whether it is an intellectual or artistic piece.”

Furthermore, Article 3, Par. 1 of the draft law stipulates, “a permanent committee of technical, legal and administrative experts shall be established in the Commission and representatives of Al-Azhar, Ministry of Islamic Endowments, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Defense, and libraries concerned with the preservation of manuscripts shall be on said committee. The committee will be in charge or the development of detailed standards for the manuscripts and their classification, numbering, evaluation and control to ensure preservation.”

Parliament approved amendments to the Egyptian Products Preference Law

In a Tuesday plenary session, chaired by Dr. Ali Abdel Aal, the House of Representatives approved the draft law submitted by the government to amend some provisions of Law No. 5 of 2015, which favours Egyptian products in government contracts; the law aims to increase competitiveness and fight unemployment.

The philosophy of the draft law is based on the preference of Egyptian products in government contracts in order to support the national industry by all available means, and to encourage businessmen and women to invest in the industrial field to benefit from the preferential advantages granted to the Egyptian producers.