Arab Finance: The House of Representatives approved a government-drafted law on Tuesday, July 14th, granting the Future of Egypt Authority (FOE) for Sustainable Development administrative, financial, and technical independence while transferring its affiliation from the Ministry of Defence to direct presidential oversight, the parliament stated.

The legislation formalizes the authority's new legal status, settles the regulatory and operational arrangements resulting from the transfer, and awaits presidential ratification.

The move reinforces the authority's expanding role in Egypt's economy after it evolved from a land reclamation project launched in 2017 into a state entity overseeing activities ranging from agriculture and strategic commodity imports to fisheries, real estate, investments, and renewable energy.

Under the law, the authority will consolidate planning, licensing, land allocation, investment, asset management, oversight, and revenue collection powers within a single body while remaining exempt from several existing laws.

The legislation also establishes a sovereign fund, Pyramids of the Nile, alongside a services fund.

Presenting the report of the joint parliamentary committee, Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee Chairman Mohamed Eid Mahgoub said the legislation reorganizes the authority as a special-purpose state body with greater administrative and financial flexibility.

The committee said the framework seeks to balance competitiveness, governance, transparency, and disclosure with national security considerations while encouraging partnerships and investment. It described the authority as "a driver, facilitator, and partner in sustainable development," rather than "an entity that dominates or monopolizes it."

Addressing parliament, Executive Director Bahaa El-Ghannam said the legislation defines the authority's governance structure and formalizes its direct subordination to the president. He added that the authority is intended to serve as an incubator for investors rather than an investor itself.

The House passed the legislation after two days of deliberations and introduced several amendments during its review. These include requiring parliamentary approval for the designation of development zones, oversight by parliament and Egypt's state audit agency, and a cap on annual fee increases within those zones.

The bill drew some criticism during the debate. Member of Parliament Reda Abdel Salam said lawmakers amended around 80% of the provisions that had prompted objections to strengthen transparency, oversight, and competitive neutrality, adding that any remaining concerns could be addressed if implementation revealed further issues.

Meanwhile, Member of Parliament Atef Al-Meghawry said parliament had not been given sufficient time to examine the legislation or consult experts. He also opposed exempting the authority from multiple legal frameworks to speed up its work, arguing that such an approach amounted to "issuing a death certificate for the government apparatus."

The legislation comes as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) continues to urge Egypt to expand the private sector's role in the economy by reducing the presence of state-owned and military-affiliated companies, which it says benefit from preferential treatment such as tax exemptions, access to land, and lower-cost labor.

According to the parliamentary report, the authority's portfolio includes a 4.5 million-feddan land reclamation and cultivation project, a grain silo complex at the New Delta project with storage capacity of 500,000 tons, 1,500 "Super Tawfeer" retail outlets, livestock projects targeting annual production of around 180,000 head, the Sphinx Agricultural Commodities Trading Centre with handling and storage capacity of up to 20 million tons, and 12 poultry slaughterhouses.

The authority is also developing renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of 2,320 megawatts and is working with the Ministry of Education and Technical Education and Italy's ITSAgro Academy to establish 26 Egyptian-Italian applied agricultural technology schools to train workers for the agriculture sector.