Housing and a massive redevelopment of Cairo to relieve congestion are among the top priorities of the Egyptian government, Egypt’s housing, utilities and urban communities minister, Mostafa Madbouly, told the MEED Invest in Egypt conference this morning.

He also said the government is accelerating investment in water and sewerage and is working on a massive development plan for the Mediterranean coast, which Madbouly said was the future of Egypt.

Below is the full transcript of his speech, where he set out in detail the country’s infrastructure investment plans.

“We have identified 30 investment opportunities in housing. We are preparing feasibility studies for them. We shall announce the start of these projects in the March conference in Sharm el-Sheikh. Big investors have expressed their interest in these projects.

“This is one of the greatest sectors for opportunities for investors from the UAE and Egypt in the next three to five years.

“We are implementing the largest housing programme in the world for low income people, which is for 1 million units. We are already building 230,000 and 52,000 units have been finished and offered to the people. This project is heavily subsidised by the government.

“The cost is £E135,000. Any beneficiary is paying £E5,000 as a down payment and £E5,000-10,000 [on occupation]. The monthly repayment is £E480 for 20 years, which is meeting the affordability criteria.

“There are other projects for PPP [public private partnerships]. One of them is the new administrative centre, east of new Cairo. We are in close discussion with the UAE government on a partnership for the establishment of the centre.

“We are carrying out a feasibility study before March and we shall invite partners and stakeholders in this project. This will deal with urban issues; traffic congestion, governmental building in downtown, creating modern office, residential and leisure facilities for Cairo.

“You need a totally new modern centre for Cairo. This project is going to be an opportunity for investment coming from within and outside Cairo.

“We are discussing with several partners, including from the Gulf and Egypt, agreements with direct partnership through which we are going to allocate the land to such kind of uses. We shan’t go to tender but reach an agreement with investors.

“When we develop middle-income projects we say we won’t subsidise them. We shall only subsidise low-income people. For the other segments, we are giving some help. This includes decent housing units and much lower price compared with what is already in the market.

“People were expecting that such schemes would be very cheap, as the government has done for 30-40 years.

“We are now engaged in 230,000 units for social housing. If you look to investment, we need about £E22bn. We have £E6bn from the government. We need £E16bn to finish the 230,000 units we are already building. The remaining amount will be cross-subsidised and come from selling land and developing housing for middle income people. All the profit will cover the losses from social housing.

“The culture of the Egyptian people is that anything coming from the government should be free. This should not be in a country that is trying to develop a free market.

“The mindset of the people has to change. The government has to achieve a balance; do social programmes but reform and restructure.

“This middle-income project is the pilot scheme for other private companies to enter in partnership with other companies, and not just Arabtec.

“Our plan is that as soon as we reach agreement with Arabtec we shall use this as a model for any other project. My main concern is for this kind of middle-income market to stabilise prices.

“Infrastructure is of great importance to us, particularly water and sewerage. Ninety-seven per cent of the country is covered but we have problems in regularity of the services. A lot of water treatment plants were due to come into service in 2011 and since, but nothing has happened. We have started to have a big deficit in water supply so we are expediting these schemes. We have set a very tough timetable for the already open projects.

“But still the main challenge in water supply is to provide water in newly established areas; the Suez Canal area and areas in the Red Sea. We are going to have to depend upon water desalination in those areas. The Ministry of Finance is now preparing three of four project packages for water desalination in PPP.

“Sewage is a big challenge. We need £E100bn to cover the deficit in the services themselves, particularly in the villages. So far we are receiving around £E3-4bn a year, which is not enough. If we want to finish this programme in eight years we need at least £E12bn each year. We are working with the World Bank and others and we are opening this up to PPP through which they can come and build STPs [sewage treatment plants]. The network is the responsibility for everyone. We have in New Cairo just finished one of the biggest STPs. We are very keen to replicate this success in other areas.

“We are now implementing our part in the national road plan. We are building three new highways and believe as a government that this road network will clear the way for the coming urban and economic development. The plan to reclaim 1 million feddan is within the road plan and other areas too.

“The north coast is the future of Egypt. There is about 500 kilometres of coastline. It is flat land without and problems. There are huge natural resources in underground water and oil fields that the Ministry of Petroleum is starting to develop. The plan is to create a big tourism centre in the north like Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurgada. We are talking about turning this area from being summer houses used for two to three months a year to a vibrant area used all round the year.

“We are masterplanning El-Alamein city and south marina. Those projects we are going to be announced at the [March] conference.

“For the whole area, we are finalising an RFP to prepare the big masterplan for the whole area, not just El Alamein and the South Marina. This will be announced in December and we shall invite big consultants to bid. The masterplan is to be completed in six months.”