President Sisi Amends Land Allocation for State Debt Reduction and Sovereign Sukuk

Egypt Daily News – Egypt News.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has issued a decree revising the terms for allocating a large parcel of state-owned land in the Red Sea Governorate to the Ministry of Finance. The land is designated for use in efforts to reduce Egypt’s public debt and issue sovereign sukuk, according to the decree published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday.

The amendment replaces Article One of Presidential Decree No. 222 of 2026. Under the revised wording, approximately 26,690.45 feddans equivalent to 112,122,142 square metres of privately owned state land in the Red Sea Governorate will be allocated to the Finance Ministry. The parcel’s boundaries are specified in an accompanying map and coordinate schedule.

The decree states that the ministry may use the land for the purpose of reducing the state’s public debt and issuing sovereign sukuk, in accordance with applicable laws and rules. It does not say that the allocation itself will immediately reduce the debt, specify the value of the land, or provide details of any sukuk issuance. Rather, it establishes the stated purpose for which the ministry is to use the designated parcel.

The revised provision was issued after the president reviewed constitutional and legal authorities relevant to the decision. These included the Constitution, legislation and decisions related to the matter, and Law No. 61 of 1963 concerning public authorities. The decree also refers to Presidential Decree No. 62 of 2018, which concerns the development map for land in the Arab Republic of Egypt.

According to the published text, the decision followed a proposal submitted by the minister of finance and approval by the Cabinet. The decree’s legal basis and approval process were set out alongside the amendment to the earlier land-allocation decision.

The updated text specifies that the land is located in the Red Sea Governorate and is part of areas owned by the state as private property. It does not identify a more precise locality in the supplied decree text. The map and coordinate schedule attached to the decision provide the geographic references for the parcel.

The amendment’s central change is its replacement of the first article of the 2026 decree with language explicitly tying the allocation to two financial purposes: reducing public debt and issuing sovereign sukuk. The provision places the land under the Ministry of Finance’s authority for those purposes, subject to the laws and procedures in force.

Sovereign sukuk are financial instruments issued by a state in accordance with applicable legal frameworks. The decree, however, does not outline the structure, timing, or scale of any future issuance. Nor does it describe how the land might be used in connection with sukuk, whether through development, investment, or another arrangement. Those details are not included in the text provided.

The decree likewise gives no estimate of the land’s market value or of the amount of public debt that could be addressed through the allocation. It therefore sets out a legal and administrative designation rather than a quantified debt-reduction plan. Any assessment of the financial impact would depend on subsequent steps and information not specified in the published wording.

By assigning the parcel to the Finance Ministry for the stated purposes, the decision establishes the ministry as the government body responsible for its use within the framework described. The reference to existing laws and rules makes clear that any steps involving the land or sovereign sukuk must proceed under the relevant regulations.

The amendment concerns a particular parcel rather than a general change to land policy. Its area is stated both in feddans and square metres, and its location is defined through the accompanying mapping documents. The decree does not indicate whether the allocation changes the land’s ownership status; it describes the parcel as state-owned private property and assigns it to the ministry for the specified uses.

The publication of the revised decree makes the amended provision part of the official legal record. It confirms the government’s stated intention to link the land allocation to public-debt reduction and sovereign sukuk issuance, while leaving the specific financial arrangements and expected results unstated.

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