The Cabinet has approved a proposal submitted by the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) to sell some of its assets in order to repay part of its debts, estimated by informed sources at LE22 billion.
Magdy Amin, head of the broadcast engineering sector, said, “We formed a specialized committee from different state authorities to count lands and buildings of Maspero and submitted proposal to the prime minister. The outcome was 32 plots, buildings and agricultural lands. They will be sold to repay part of its debts, which was approved by cabinet.”
“Soon measures of selling will be finalized in a public auction in collaboration between the Finance Ministry and ERTU to repay part of the debts,but not all of it,” he added.
Mohsen al-Noamany, ERTU secretary general, stressed that repaying part of the debts will not end the proposal of restructuring. He added that the selling is only for the unused lands and that it is part of restructuring the resources.
Osama al-Sheikh, former ERTU chief, described the decision as flexible and that the union owns around 4,500 unused acres.
Meanwhile, Planning Minister Ashraf al-Araby said that the financial and administrative plan of Maspero includes reducing number of departments to only four.
He told Al-Masry Al-Youm that none of the Maspero workers will be harmed by the plan, adding that financial situation of Maspero has deteriorated and cannot continue under these conditions.
The Cabinet approved on Thursday the presidential decision on amending some of the provisions of the law no. 13 for the year 1979 to allow ERTU to dispose of its assets as per measures ordered by the Cabinet upon a proposal by the board of trustees in a way that allows the union repays part of the debts.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
