Soapbox: Planning for change By Hamdi Abdel-Azim Two new governorates have been created. The first comprises Helwan and its outskirts, the satellite cities of Al-Shorouk, New Cairo, Haikstep, Badr and 15th of May. The second, the Sixth of October governorate, includes parts of Giza up to the borders of Imbaba and Osim in the north and of Fayoum in the south. The Nile and Giza will constitute Sixth of October's eastern border and the governorates of Beheira and Marsa Matrouh its western. The presidential decree originally annexed the villages of Al-Saff, Ayyat and Atfih to the Fayoum governorate, whose capital is more than 160 kilometres away. The decree was subsequently modified, annexing Al-Saff and Atfih to Helwan, and taking Al-Wahat Al-Bahariya away from the governorate of Minya and annexing it to Sixth of October. The people of Ayyat are still attached to Fayoum and still complaining. The two new governorates will allow for improvements in the management of education, healthcare, water provision, wastewater disposal, sporting facilities and youth centres, housing and other utilities and social services. The decentralisation will also alleviate the financial and administrative burdens on the governorates of Cairo and Giza. The decentralisation should also facilitate the industrial and agricultural projects, encourage real estate investment and development, and ultimately enhance these areas' ability to attract inhabitants away from the densely populated and over-burdened governorates of Cairo and Giza. Considerable budgetary allocations will be needed to set in motion development projects in the new governorates. Since it is difficult to see how the bill can be passed on to tax payers the question remains as to how the changes are to be funded without augmenting the national deficit. One stopgap solution is to transfer development and investment allocations already earmarked for these areas to the projected budgets of the new governorates. That will allow some time to explore how the governorates can become financially autonomous. Among possible sources of local funding are fees for building and automobile licences, sanitation and other services, as well as revenues from the sale of vacant lots. The two new governorates should help curtail random urban development. The boundaries of the new governorates have been designed to ensure maximum integration of economic and social services, as well as providing space in the adjacent desert for future urban expansion. This week's Soapbox speaker is a professor of economics.
