UN Population Fund tackles Egypt's growing citizenry with PM

CAIRO - 22 October 2019: Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly met on Tuesday with the United Nations Population Fund representative in the presence of a number of ministers and concerned parties.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative in Egypt Alexander Buderoza stressed in his previous statements that Egypt's biggest problem is the growing population.

Buderoza referred to the existence of a joint project between the United Nations and Egypt to find a solution to this problem,as they have started awareness campaigns and research in a number of governorates, most notably in Upper Egypt's Sohag and Minya.

In the same context, the prime minister chaired the meeting of the Higher Committee for the Regulation of Churches Establishment, which had announced that the number of approved churches and service buildings since the commencement of the committee's work has reached 1171 churches and buildings.

In February 2018, during the term of former Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, it was announced that in accordance with the country’s constitution that adopts “the right to practice religious rites within different worship houses",approval was given to study the cases of 53 churches along with several affiliated buildings to be officially licensed during the Cabinet’s following meeting.

Several conditions were laid in the statement for the churches to be finally recognized by the government as legal religious buildings. These conditions include meeting the requirements for civil protection within a period of four months and fulfilling all the state's rights regarding the rationing of the land on which such buildings are built. The approval may be withdrawn if the buildings do not finish civil protection facilities in four months.

"On January 9, Egypt’s Ministry of Housing issued a decision to allocate lands to establish 37 churches in various new cities,"Walid Abbas, assistant housing minister revealed. In an interview with Egypt Today, Abbas said that the government’s New Urban Communities Authority ordered allocating lands for 30 churches in different new cities from 2014 to 2017.

Abbas added that the authority also approved establishing seven other churches in new cities in 2018, besides the Church of Nativity, the Middle East's biggest church that has been inaugurated in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital.