Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, witnessed this morning at the Cabinet headquarters in the New Administrative Capital, the signing ceremony of three cooperation protocols between the governorates of Cairo, Giza, and Qalyubia, each separately, and the National Press Authority; regarding the payment of debts owed to the three governorates by a number of national press institutions, namely: Al-Ahram, Al-Akhbar, and Dar Al-Tahrir for Printing and Publishing, and benefiting from these press institutions in the field of printing, publishing, and advertising. The three protocols were signed by: Dr. Ibrahim Saber Khalil, Governor of Cairo, Eng. Adel El-Naggar, Governor of Giza, Eng. Ayman Attia, Governor of Qalyubia, with Eng. Abdel Sadek El-Shorbagy, Chairman of the National Press Authority. Following the signing, the Prime Minister stressed that the state is always keen to provide full support to media organizations, the National Press Authority and its national press institutions, in order to carry out their assigned role in performing their tasks and mission, while seeking to remove any obstacles that hinder the efforts made to develop these national press institutions, especially with regard to working to improve their economic situation, in light of the many accumulated challenges that are currently being dealt with with all seriousness, including the file of paying accumulated debts, within the framework of the government's efforts to establish a comprehensive and final settlement to the problem of financial entanglements between various entities and institutions, in a way that reduces the burden on public finances, and achieves a better financial situation for these institutions subject to entanglements. In turn, the head of the National Press Authority stressed that signing the cooperation protocols today comes within the framework of the desire to pay the financial dues of the three press institutions: Al-Ahram, Al-Akhbar, and Dar Al-Tahrir for Printing and Publishing, in light of the state's policy of paying debts owed by economic entities and national press institutions. He added: The Authority's signing of these protocols today comes from the fact that the National Press Authority is an independent body with a legal personality, and is responsible for managing national press institutions and working to develop them and grow their assets and ensure their modernization, independence, neutrality, and commitment to sound professional, administrative, and economic performance, and in light of the keenness to pay any debts owed to them, and based on the desire of all parties to the protocol to establish an agreement framework to find appropriate solutions to pay those debts owed.
Under the terms of the three protocols, the National Press Authority, on behalf of each of the three governorates, undertakes to take contracting procedures with the national press institutions affiliated with it; to provide all the requirements of those governorates in terms of various types of services in the fields of printing, publishing, advertising, and others.
The Authority, through the national press institutions, also prints, installs and maintains the billboards located on the ring road within the governorate, according to the model provided by the project consultant affiliated with the governorate, after the governorate renovates the walls of the properties, paints them and prepares them for placing billboards on them.
The three press institutions are responsible for providing all the needs of the three governorates and all the neighborhoods located in them from publications, forms, records, notebooks and any other requirements according to the needs of the governorates’ work, including (publishing, advertising, advertisements and printing), in addition to subscriptions to the national newspapers for the daily newspapers of the governorate’s sectors.
It was also agreed upon the method of paying the debts owed to the governorates by the three national press institutions; whereby 50% of the total value of each publishing, printing or other operation carried out by any of the press institutions for the benefit of any of the three governorates will be paid, in exchange for deducting a percentage equal to 50% of the total value of each operation carried out by any of the press institutions or companies affiliated with the National Press Authority, in payment of the debt owed to them.