Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has decided to allocate EGP 500m from the Tahya Masr Fund, to develop Doweqa district in Cairo, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb announced. Mehleb added that work will "immediately" start, to be ended after a year, State Information Service (SIS) reported on Monday. The statements were made during Mehleb's visit to Moqattam district in Cairo on Sunday, accompanied by ministers of housing and local development along with the Cairo governor, with the aim of following up on the housing project in the area to house residents of slums. Tahya Masr Fund was formed in June following Al-Sisi's inauguration in efforts to collect donations to stimulate the struggling economy. Al-Sisi issued a decree to establish the fund, granting it legal status, where in accordance with Article 2 of the decree law, the fund is held under the auspices of the president. The main purpose of the fund is to assist in the establishment of service and development projects, including: the financing of micro enterprises; infrastructure projects; small projects for youths; the development of slums, reducing the number of homeless and street children; and other projects contributing to supporting the economic and social situation of the country. In late December, Al-Sisi disclosed that the donations of the fund is between EGP 5-6bn. During the visit, Mehleb furthered that he has discussed with Al-Sisi the issue of slums, where the president said urged for preparing a plan to develop slums by providing residents proper housing, services and job opportunities. Egypt has 1300 slums of which 340 are in a "serious situation", Mehleb noted, calling for civil society organisations to participate with the government in the development process. Developing slums is usually costly as expenditures for the development of 26 slum neighbourhoods over the past three years reached EGP 1.5bn, according to Manal Shaheen, General Director of Development Projects for the Cairo governorate at the Ministry of Urban Development and Slums. Budget allocation for developing slum areas in FY 2014/2015 budget stood at EGP 600m, according to the Ministry of Planning.
