Egypt allocates Red Sea land to cut public debt as Madbouly reviews 2030 debt target

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has issued a decree allocating about 26,690 feddans of state-owned land in the Red Sea governorate to the finance ministry to reduce public debt and issue sovereign sukuk, as Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly reviewed progress towards the government’s debt targets.

The decree, published in the Official Gazette, amends Article 1 of Presidential Decree No. 222 of 2026. The original text allocated the same plot, about 112.1mn sq m of land owned privately by the state, for issuing sovereign sukuk only. The amendment adds public debt reduction to its permitted uses.

Debt-reduction meeting

Madbouly met Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk at the government’s headquarters in the New Administrative Capital to follow up on the recommendations of the Egypt Forum 2026 on reducing the debt of budget-sector bodies, in co-operation with state economic authorities. Also attending were May Adel, assistant finance minister for public debt management, and Mahmoud Hodhod, head of the ministry’s bank financing and investment unit.

The prime minister called debt reduction a top government priority, aimed at easing the cost of servicing it and freeing resources for priority sectors and public services. The forum’s recommendations set a path to bring public debt down to about 69.5% of GDP by 2030, with fixed ceilings on public debt, external debt and sovereign guarantees.

Kouchouk said the ratio of budget-sector debt to GDP had been falling since the 2023/24 fiscal year and had dropped by about 14 percentage points between June 2023 and June 2026. External debt of budget-sector bodies was cut by the equivalent of about 3.9% of GDP in 2025/26, he said.

The finance minister presented proposals to speed up debt reduction, achieve higher growth and diversify funding through new and innovative instruments. Madbouly directed officials to draw up a detailed plan setting out specific tasks for each ministry and government body, to be presented to the president.