The high committee for the National Project for Automation of Agricultural Land Registration met yesterday to discuss the recent developments of the project's second phase on agricultural lands nationwide.
The meeting was co-chaired by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dr. Tarek Kamel and that of Water Resources and Irrigation Dr. Mamoud Abu Zaid and attended by Deputy Minister of Justice Counselor Mohamed Hosni.
The committee reviewed the performance rate and the number of ownership certificates and operations conducted after applying the automated system in its first phase in July 2007 till now.
The meeting also went through the challenges facing the practical implementation of the system to avoid any defects in phase two. These challenges included the automation process itself, the data entry of residential units built on agricultural lands and the swift facilitation of control points through the Egyptian Survey Authority (ESA) so as to utilize advanced ways to measure lands instead of the manual method.
The committee also discussed the project's 200 million-pound budget in view of the lands and buildings to be registered across Egypt within the second phase, going through the action plan for phase two.
Phase two has been divided into three steps. Step one, to be finalized in June 2008, includes the governorates of Sharkia, Dakahlia, Beheira, Giza and Assiut.
Step two, to be finalized in December 2008, includes: Menoufia, Gharbia, Qalyoub, Port Said, Beni Sueif and Sohag.
Step three, to be finalized in July 2009, includes: Ismailia, Fayoum, Menia, Kena and Aswan.
The committee, meanwhile, decided to release accreditation and ownership certificates for the Kafr El Sheikh lands from any automated office nationwide, as part of the one-stop shop principle applied at public authorities.
In April 2005 a three-year trilateral cooperation protocol had been signed among the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) and the Ministry of Justice. Since then the project has been carried out between the three ministries on one hand and 11 private sector companies on the other representing an example of an effective public-private partnership.
The first phase of the project comprised maps digitalization and a database for maps and another for real estate documents, then the integration of both into a database for geographical information.
The second included the establishment of an information center for corporeal registry at the Ministry of Justice. It also involved developing the corporeal registry offices operations and implementing an information network connecting these offices with the Cadastral Mapping Center of the Egyptian General Survey Authority.
About 82,000 maps had been digitalized so far in the eight Egyptian governorates of Ismalia, Port Said, Beni Sueif, Kafr El Sheikh, Damietta and Assuit.
