Egypt is considered one of the oldest countries in recognizing the local admini-stration since the division of delta into two major parts; countryside and urban areas in the wake of the opening of Egypt in 641 AD. The early beginnings of the local sys-tem were known in Egypt through the French occupation, where Napoleon divided the country into 16 directorates. The first constitutional recognition in the Egyptian local system came in two articles 132 and 133 of the 1923 Constitution. This Constitution stipulates that all the councils would be chosen by elections. The Constitution also granted the councils specializations concerning the implementation of local general policy and required them to publish their budget and to open its doors to the public.

Local and Rural Development Main Pillars:

* Deepening administrative and financial decentralization and activating popular participation in the process of the development planning.

* Encouraging new investments, increasing the participation of private sector and the urban society and giving a priority to developing Upper Egypt.

* Focusing on rural areas to eradicate factors of expulsion and to limit emigration to urban areas.

* Give a push to the specialized areas by improving the competitiveness of these areas to have the ability to attract proper national and foreign investments to create job opportunities and to encompass the increasing number of unemployed youth.

Investments in the Programme of Local and Rural Development:

-  The total implemented investments in the programme during 2006/07 reached about L.E 3.2 billion, i.e. 12% of general investments.

-  These investments are distributed to governorates and different areas to de-velop the major services in villages (electricity, potable water, sanitary drainage, implementing  roads, transportation and communications).

-  The distributed governmental investments in regions and governorates under the 5th five-year plan (2002/2007) reached about LE 510 billion.

Local development is the major mainstay in the process of the comprehensive development which Egypt applies. It aims in the first place at achieving the devel-opmental balance among the governorates through caring for the governorates and their development.

In this respect, allocations for investment projects carried out by the Ministry of Local Development during the fiscal year 2007/08 total LE 1.76 billion.

The National Project for Developing Villages Surrounded by Desert

Under the terrible overpopulation and the continuous erosion of the agricultural lands, there has to be a substitution to encompass this increase. The state moved east and west of the Nile on an area of several kilometers to establish about 400 new villages on an urbanely, civilizational basis that suits the overpopulation.

This is considered a national project that will be implemented during the coming twenty years to encompass about 4 to 5 million people. This is on condition that the state will undertake to set up the basic utilities and urban planning of the villages with providing services to encourage the settlement process.

During 2005/06, a number of 21 villages close to the desert were determined in seven governorates as a first stage starting with Upper Egypt with a ratio of 3 vil-lages in every governorate.

In addition, efforts are underway to prepare for the second stage of the project  where the data of 280 villages has been completed initially. This stage includes developing the villages surrounded by desert in all governorates.

The National Project to Develop Upper Egypt

This project occupied a great priority in development plan and it has been acti-vated through many mechanisms as follows:

Establishing the Holding Company to Develop Upper Egypt with a capital of LE 100 million. It aims to focus efforts to develop Upper Egypt by creating investment opportunities and mobilizing savings, and to employ them in productive fields and different activities, namely transport, cooling and industrialization of agricultural crops and industrial projects that are available in Upper Egypt.

* The new holding company contributes a share of projects which suit Upper Egypt and leave the remaining shares in such projects to the private sector contributor.

* Providing investment incentives connected with the employment ability in or-der to increase job opportunities. It includes LE 15,000 as an incentive from the state for every job opportunity. The state provided LE 1 billion for this purpose in addition to other incentives such as providing land for free and facilitating the procedures of authorizations.

* Projects of Assuit, Sohag and Red Sea Road have been carried out in order to enhance development along this road especially in reclamation, mining and stone quarries areas.

* Allocations for investment projects carried out by the Ministry of Local Devel-opment in Upper Egypt hit LE 733 million in the fiscal year 2007/08, out of LE 1.760 billion allocated for investment projects in all Egyptian governorates, distributed as follows:

Fayoum (78), Beni Sweif (76), Menia (115), Assiut (115), Sohag (136),  Quina (100), Aswan (71)  and Luxor (36).

The Project of Connecting the Red sea with Upper Egypt Governorates

By the end of the year 2006, the biggest project of its kind was launched to connect the Red Sea with south of Upper Egypt governorates via a new road and five horizontal pivots that connect every governorate of Upper Egypt with a city on the Red Sea.

The new road costs about LE one billion thus making the south of Upper Egypt's governorates the greatest area to attract investments and development, thanks to their marine habors on the Red sea.

* Local Development Fund:

-  The number of projects that were loaned till 10 May, 2007 is about 984 projects with a total cost reaching LE 2.9 million and provide about 1968 job opportunities.

-  The number of the implemented projects through the fund in 2006/2007 is about 10,000 small projects, with total investments of about LE 38 million. They implement environmental, agricultural, animal production, apiary, means of transportation and programming projects. About 30% of the total financed projects were annually dedicated for women in rural areas.

Domestic Lending Project

The project started in 107 villages and cities where the social fund provides the required financing of LE 107 million. The state supported this project with a cost that reached LE 10 million which is the difference in the loans' interest listed in local development. The number of beneficiary families from this project is about 49012.

Project of Local Development Information Centres

It aims to modernize the comprehensive national development information base in a way that allows an integrated information map for all villages and cities. The information centres project provides job opportunities for about 32,000 youth in 4901 places in all villages and cities with a total finance from Ministry of finance reaching LE 60 million annually. Those youth work on modernizing local development data-base in all its sectors. At the present time, they are carrying out a detailed encompassment for the living conditions of all the Egyptian families (about 14 million) in urban and rural areas all over the Republic.

About 2.5 million families have been included so far and their data has been entered on computers to benefit from in the future planning. The project also aims to build an electronic portal for the Local Development Ministry on the internet in both Arabic and English.

Productive Cooperatives… Enhancing Small Projects

The basis of the productive cooperative societies supervised by the state has been widening. These societies aim at supporting small projects through providing production and marketing products. This is added to the State's role in training, providing technical support, checking out specifications' quality and supporting the role of productive  cooperative union as a popular organization to these productive cooperatives. The number of productive cooperatives reached 475 base society in all governorates and 15 cooperative and general societies where their activities reached a value of about LE 1.3 billion to date.

Industrial Developing Zones

Year 2006/07 witnessed a continuous development in industrial areas supervised by governorates and completion of the infrastructure of 64 industrial zones, of which 17 are listed in the unified plan, in addition to the other industrial zones that are supervised by other authorities (26 industrial zones).

Youth Employment Systems

Youth employment systems have been spread in 26 governorates and Luxor, thus providing about 15210 job opportunities through implementing 35,000 productive and service projects with total investments of LE 277 million. In addition, 30582 youths have been trained in order to gain work's skills. A lot of exhibitions have been established to help youth market their products; and participate in the temporary markets set up for that purpose.

Rural Development

The National Programme for Integrated Rural Development, "Shorouq" is one of the effective means to promote and develop Egyptian village. It started in 1994 and provided opportunities to implement many local development projects in Egypt.

"Shorouq" Programme relies, in the first place, on the concept of local popular contribution in the integrated development in countryside. This is done through providing pure potable water and carrying out a net of paved rural ways that con-nect the main villages with their surroundings and with the centres of marketing and services so as to spread the comprehensive development in all the Egyptian villages and their surroundings. The development of Egyptian villages is included in the budget of Ministry of Local development with about LE 847.2 million in the fiscal year 2007/08.

National Programme for Integrated Rural Development "Shorouq"

This project started in 1994 to promote and develop the Egyptian village through popular participation in the integrated development of the Egyptian rural areas. The project's total implemented investment during the last decade reached about LE 2.5 billion, in addition to LE 300 million investments for rural development during 2006/07. These investments contributed to implementing more than 100,000 projects in villages all over the Republic. This includes many fields such as potable water, sanitary drainage, paving roads, electricity, health, youth, culture, women, and children in addition to education, as the rural students represent nowadays more than 85.5% of the total number of students enrolled in pre-university education.

Egypt's Programme for Development of Villages

This programme represents a new addition to the government's programmes in developing the deprived villages through applying the decentralization rules and concepts. The programme aims at achieving tangible progress in life style of the rural area through addressing the poverty problems in 10 governorates, 7 of which are in Upper Egypt (Menya, Quina, Beni Sweif, Fayyoum, Assiut, Sohag, Luxor). It also includs 58 markaz (districts) with a total population of about 14 million citizens in about 1500 hamlets.

Programme of Applying New Urban Cordons for 4500 Egyptian Villages

 It aims at preparing a whole plan to develop Egyptian villages till 2020. During 2006/07, urban cordons for 497 villages have been established in the first stage and the second and third phases which include 1199 and 950 villages respectively are under construction.

Environmental Project to Develop Rural Areas

It is one of the most important projects that focuses on settling and developing technology of energy of life mass aiming at developing rural areas, transferring the organic wastes to energy (electricity generating gas) and eliminating air pollution. The project is being applied in four distant villages to serve 500 residential units.

Slum Areas

The state adopts a long-term strategy so as to curb expansion of slum areas in different governorates. Egypt paid due attention to this issue in 1992. through upgrading 1221 slum areas spread in 20 governorates, besides Luxor. in 2006/07, development works for about 120 slum areas were implemented with investments of around LE 1550 million distributed on electricity, paving roads and bridges, as well as enhancing potable water and sanitary drainage services. Besides spreading production rules in rural areas and creating an integrated system for operating solid and liquid wastes, along with paying attention to promoting the environment through increasing the greenery areas.

National Project to Eliminate Slum Areas by 2020

This project aims at applying a unified vision and an integrated programme of which all the state's authorities and the donor authorities comply in order to realize integrated development in the slum areas and lay down the appropriate regulations for eliminating such areas. During 2006/07, it has been dealt with the slum areas listed in the project and the detailed plans to surround the rural areas in Cairo, Giza and Alexandria has been prepared.

Civil and Rural Urban Development Programme

It aims at dealing with slum areas with methods depending primarily on the ur-ban planning that takes the necessary needs for slum areas into consideration. This is done through improving and developing the services and modernizing the infra-structure, along with taking the traffic problems around this area into consideration. This programme is carried out according to a temporal plan that aims at curbing any new slum areas, controlling the existing slum areas and preserving the arable land in Egypt.

Many projects deal with the expected increase in population such as "Our Youth at Work" Project. It is the programme of the new village where one million feddans will be reclaimed in the desert and the project "Your life is better"; for building half a million houses.

Investment Opportunities in Governorates

Egypt possesses various investment opportunities and components such as benefiting from the advantages and exemptions mentioned in the Law on Investment Guarantees and Incentives No. 8 of 1997 and supplying the projects with electricity, water and natural gas according to the needs of every project. The elements differ from one governorate to another; as follows:*

1- Beni Sweif Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-  Skillful employment in the field of animal and poultry production with suitable prices.

-  Areas which are used as green fodder.

-  Beni Sweif's proximity to Cairo makes it a vital marketing centre.

-  Reducing custom taxes to a 5% from the value of imported machines and equipment.

2- Fayyoum Governorate

The governorates provides investment elements such as:

- Water surfaces such as Qarun Lake, Rayan areas, canals, drainages (Youssif Sea Canal).

-  Two new industrial areas on an area of 3102 feddans.

-  Areas appropriate for tourist investment around Qarun Lake, Rayan Valley Lakes,  and the dry valleys.

And this is planned while providing all the necessary studies and building conditions for investors.

3- Menya Governorate

Governorate provides investment element such as:

-  Suitable lands for agriculture (West and East of the Nile).

-  An Investment map to facilitate the choice of the suitable project and the proce-dures of allocation of lands.

-  Stone quarry, raw materials and facility of river transport.

-  More than 40 tourist sites including pharaoh, Roman, Islamic and Christian monuments (Frezr tomb, temple of Nero and compartment of the god Hathor) besides, mosques and ancient churches.

4- Assiut Governorate

The governorate provides investment factors such as:

-  Good and abundant production of vegetables and fruits.

-  Facility of river transport.

-  Raw materials (limestone, alabaster, clay sand, pebbles).

-  International airport, state of the art road network, railways and River Nile.

5- Sohag Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-  Lands with an area of 9,800 feddans suitable for reclamation and agriculture in the.

-  Raw materials in great quantities such as marble, limestone, pepples, clay, kale-set which is used in the industry of ceramics, porcelain and cement.

-  Establishing an airport in Sohag.

-  An international campground in el Kawther.

6- Qena Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-  An area of 352,600 feddans that is suitable for reclamation and agriculture in Qena Vally, Elleketa and west of el Marashda

-  Establishing 3 industrial Zones(the first industrial zone on an area of 354 feedans in Kalaheen and Qeft, the 2nd industrial zone at the district of "Hew" on an area of 500 feddans and the third industrial free zone in Kalaheen on an area of 216 feddans).

7- Aswan Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-  The abundant and good production of vegetable and fruit.

-  69,000 feddans of Arable lands.

-  The industrial areas equipped with infrastructure and allocating free lands for investors.

-  Raw materials like Granite and marble in great quantities.

-  All means of transportation and the facility to reach the governorate.

8- Giza Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-  Roads network that connects between reclaimable lands and the cities.

-  Two industrial areas in the 6th of October and Abu Rawash cities.

- General transport lines that link the industrial areas with cities and new urban societies and businessmen services.

-   All means of transportation (Land, aviation, railway, buses, rent cars).

9- The Red Sea Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-  Farms for breeding livestock cattle, sheep, camels and horses.

-  Areas of lands in Safaga, Ras Garab, Qser, Marsa Alam cities to establish indus-trial areas.

-  General transport lines connecting the industrial areas with cities and new ur-ban communities.

-  Metals (gold, iron, phosphate, marble granite, potassium, silver, copper, man-ganese, white sands and lead).

-  Coral reefs, colored fish and diving sites.

10- El Wadi El Gadid Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-   Exempting the contracts exemption from stamp tax and authentication fees for 3 years as of the date of the company's registration in the commercial register.

-  Elements of therapeutic tourism with hot and cold mineral water and sand mass which can be used in treating stomach, kidney rheumatism, cold and allergy diseases.

11- Matrouh Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-   Arable lands.

-  Facilitating procedures of allotment of lands, speeding the approvals and au-thorizations and offering customs exemptions.

-  A lot of Pharaoh, Roman and Islamic monuments.

12- North of Sinai Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-   Lands which are good for reclamation with vast areas and depend in irrigation on wells, floods and rains in north, middle and south sectors.

-   Quarry and raw materials (marble, ornamented stones, pepples, sands of glass).

-   Four industrial areas and two free zones.

-   Marine port in el-Arish.

-   A number of rare nature reserves such el-Zraneq Reserve.

13- South of Sinai Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-  8000 feddans for agricultural reclamation on underground water in Feran Val-ley.

-   Many water bodies in el-Tour, Ras Sedr, Dahab, and El-Aqaba bay, thus providing abundant production of fish weath.

-  Raw materials (petrol, iron, copper, phosphate, manganese, carbon, cement, glass sand, pebbles, coal and limestone).

-   Many nature reserves (Ras Mohamed Feran Valley-Taba-Catherine.

14- Cairo Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-   9 industrial areas supplied with the infra structure that benefit from Law no.8 of 1997 on Investment Guarantees and Incentives.

-   The distinguished location which has competitive priviledges, in addition to the skillful employment with moderate wages.

-   Raw materials (marble, basalt, clay sand for glass).

-   Many ancient pharaoh, Islamic and Coptic landmarks such as the Egyptian Mu-seum, the Islamic Museum and Coptic Museum.

15- Alexandria Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-   Necessary water for irrigation.

-   Agriculture lands in al-Nahda, el-Hammam, around el-Nasser and Bahig cabals until el-Alamein and Abis.

-  10 industrial areas supplied with infrastructure including 3 areas that benefits from Law No.8 of 1997 for Investment Guarantees and Incentives.

-  Two airports and harbors that facilitate the arrival of tourists.

-   Allocating 10% from new industrial lands for small micro projects.

16- Port Said Governorate

The governorate provides investment elements such as:

-   An area of 135,000 feddans that is suitable for agriculture.

-   The trained employment in the field of animal poultry production with suitable wages.

-   Investment map in the governorate and facilitating procedures for investors.

-  The national project for the industrial areas in the east of al-Tafreea on an area of 52,400 feddans.

-   The governorate has established 6 touristic villages on the Mediterranean beach in Port Said and two villages in port Fouad.

17- Suez Governorate

The governorate provides elements of investment such as:

-   Lands suitable for agriculture (Shandoura, Kabret, Oyoon Moussa).

-  A village has been established on an area of 253 feddans where all dairy and yards production projects shall be transferred, away from residential mass.

-  Three or that effectively contribute to facilitating transportation and exportation (Port Tawfeeq - Adabiah – El-Ein El-Sokhnah).

-   Three industrial areas including 173 plots of land reday for investment.

-   Many attractive regions for tourists.

-   Skillful employment with suitable wages.

The governorate provides elements of investment such as:

-   Good areas for fish breeding.

-   The fertile agriculture lands.

-   Allocating lands for investors at reasonable prices.

-   Many touristic regions such as Damietta Port and el-Fanar area.

19- Daqahlia Governorate

The governorate provides elements of investment such as:

-   Around 50, 000 feddans for reclamation.

-   A lot of big factories (Semad Talkha, Oil and Soap, Spinning and Weaving).

-  Two industrial areas, the small industrial compound in al- Asafra on an area of 60 feddans and the industrial area in Gamasa on an area of 727 feddans that benefit from the investment guarantees and incentives.

20- Sharkia Governorate

The governorate provides elements of investment such as:

- Lands suitable for agriculture in Al-Salhya and Al-Husseinia.

-  Free plot of lands in industrial areas suitable for all kinds of industrial invest-ments.

-   Investors have been exempted from 25% of the land's price when he carries out his project within three years.

21- Qaliobia Governorate

The governorate provides elements of investment such as:

-   Lands suitable for agriculture and irrigation.

-   Industrial areas in al- Shorooq, el-Safa and al-Obour city.

-   Free plots of lands in industrial areas supplied with utilities.

-   Bureau for the service of investors to reduce the temporal period for establish-ing projects and to facilitate the procedures.

-   An industrial development apparatus.

22- Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate

-   Good areas for fish breeding.

-  Two industrial areas in Balteem on an area of 114 feddans and in Motobas on an area of 1160 feddans.

-   Free plots of lands in industrial areas supplied with utilities.

23- El-Gharbia Governorate

The governorate provides elements of investment such as:

-   Vast areas of lands cultivated with aromatic plants especially Jasmine and Ara-bian Jasmine.

-   International trade point in Tanta which offers services to businessmen.

-   All means of transportation.

24- Menoufia Governorate  

The governorate provides elements of investment such as:

-  Available water throughout the year due to its location between the two branches of the Nile (Rossetta and Damietta).

-   Wide areas of lands suitable for reclamation and agriculture.

-   Exempting of the companies from stamp tax and authentication fees for 5 years as of date of registration in the commercial register.

25- El-Behira Governorate

The governorate provides elementes of investment such as:

-   About 750, 000 feddans from the lands suitable for reclamation and agriculture.

-   Experienced manpower in the field of agriculture.

-   Abundant amounts of plams.

-  Coastal and desert environment besides the great amounts of monuments from different ages.

26- Ismailia Governorate

The governorate provides elements of investment such as:

-  The total land area of fruits reaches 82721 feddans and the brimful area of vege-tables reaches 60535 feddans.

-  Technology valley project as one of the national projects on an area of 16,000 feddans.

-  Two new industrial areas under construction in the Abou Khalefa Village and el-Rayah.

27- Luxor Governorate

The governorate provides elements of investment such as:

-   Using glass greenhouses in agriculture (Fruits – decoration plants – vegetables)

-   Free plots of lands in industrial areas supplied with utilities.

-   Allotment of lands for investors with reasonable prices.

-   Instant issuing of the projects licenses for investors.  

-   International Golf Stadium and Winter Palace Hotel.