The New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) will issue on Monday through an auction system 195 pieces of land in 22 cities for service projects, the authority announced. The move comes under the authority's plan to allocate 1,800 acres for various purposes to activate the real estate market. The total size of the 195 issued lands amounts to 600 acres. Lands allocation system has changed after ratifying the New Investment Law in March. Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour explained that the new law has extensively focused on the procedures of lands allocation to investors. This extends from item no. 71 to item no. 83, which aim to coordinate and facilitate between relevant parties that have authority on lands. The law has also offered unprecedented incentives for lands in remote areas. This includes the allocation of lands through purchasing, leasing or on a usufruct basis at low prices. It allows the participation of the government in paying workers insurance and training of workers in remote areas to raise their capabilities. Abdel Nour added that the law has also obliged the government to offer incentives for labour-intensive, remote areas, energy, logistics and production projects. The incentives will allow investors to establish custom ports, in coordination with the Minister of Finance, and obtain energy at low prices. It also obliges the government to fully or partially repay costs of providing lands with facilities to the investor after the project's allocation in addition to bearing the cost of training workers. "There are also amendments in the Penal Code related to the criminal responsibility of the investor in the times of violations, in a way that strips the company's chairman, who is the legal representative of his company, from responsibility and punishing the concerned employee," Abdel Nour said. Under the new law, there will be a "one-stop shop" the investor will deal with to finish all the needed procedures to implement his project and the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) will be represented in this shop. "There will also be a data base for all available lands in Egypt and their facility status so that it will be easier for investors to know which lands are available in which areas," Abdel Nour added. Source: Dail News Egypt
