New social housing project, state budget get attention on the airwaves last night: Al Kahera Alaan’s Lamees El Hadidi spoke with Housing Minister Assem El Gazzar, who discussed the Asmarat 3 social housing project, one of several projects inaugurated yesterday by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi. El Gazzar said that people will be able to pay for housing in installments over 20 years at an 8% interest rate. He said that 410k of the 610k homes in the project have been completed. Would-be residents can apply for housing at the project online (watch, runtime: 22:19). El Hekaya’s Amr Adib spoke with the Prime Minister’s media adviser Hani Younis (watch, runtime: 4:00) and Tahya Misr spokesperson Mohamed Mukhtar about the project (watch, runtime: 3:03). Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa also spoke with El Gazzar (watch, runtime: 38:19) about the project.

Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary spoke with Finance Minister Mohamed Maait to discuss the state budget for FY2020-2021. Maait said that the budget is an ambitious one targeting high growth rates and large investments in multiple sectors, especially health and water resources. Maait played up the state’s support of the average citizen, saying that despite the covid-19 crisis, the government was able to provide ample supplies of basic goods and medicines, in addition to a number of initiatives including the EGP 500 monthly stipend for day laborers. Funding for pensions will come in at EGP 170 bn in the new budget, up from EGP 160 last year. The allocation for public sector salaries is EGP 335 bn, up from EGP 301 bn from 2019-2020. Maait also discussed the USD 8 bn in funds secured from the IMF (watch, runtime: 29:07).