{"id":41814,"date":"2019-12-04T09:22:38","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T09:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41814"},"modified":"2019-12-04T09:22:38","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T09:22:38","slug":"rouhani-iran-still-ready-for-nuclear-talks-if-us-lifts-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41814","title":{"rendered":"Rouhani: Iran still ready for nuclear talks if US lifts sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nCAIRO: Motorized rickshaws known as tuk-tuks have ruled the streets of Cairo\u2019s slums for the past two decades, squeezing through dusty alleys, dodging trash bins and fruit stands, blaring rhythmic electro-pop and navigating the city\u2019s chaos to haul millions of Egyptians home every day.
Now the government is taking its most ambitious stand yet again against the polluting three-wheeled vehicles: in a push to modernize the country\u2019s neglected transport system, it plans to replace tuk-tuks with clean-running minivans.
\u201cThis is for the health and safety of all Egyptians,\u201d said Khaled El-Qassim, the spokesman for Egypt\u2019s Ministry of Local Development, which is spearheading the initiative. \u201cWe\u2019re creating a more beautiful image of our country.\u201d
The state had long turned a blind eye as tuk-tuks became part of the fabric of life in Cairo\u2019s vast informal settlements.
The new plan requires that drivers sell their tuk-tuks for scrap and take loans to buy new minivans \u2014 or risk fines and even prosecution. It has raised fears that the poorest Egyptians, already squeezed by economic austerity measures, will shoulder the bulk of the burden.
\u201cI\u2019d rather work as a thief than pay for this minivan,\u201d said Ehab Sobhy, a 47-year-old who earns 130 pounds, about $8, a day plying the densely-packed district of Shobra in his weathered black-and-yellow tuk-tuk, sporting a decorative Islamic sticker in place of a license.
\u201cIf they take this away \u2026 how is my family going to eat,\u201d asked Sobhy. Even with a government loan, he said he wouldn\u2019t be able to afford the 90,000 pounds he estimates he\u2019d need for the new minivan.
\u201cThey\u2019ll bring money to the banks, all at the expense of the people,\u201d declared Mohammed Zaydan, a 52-year-old father of five who started driving a tuk-tuk after struggling to find work as a painter. \u201cIf they ban the tuk-tuk, they trample on the poor.\u201d
Former President Hosni Mubarak\u2019s government tried to stem the tide of tuk-tuks, banning them in most of Cairo\u2019s affluent neighborhoods but it also allowed tuk-tuk parts to flow from South Asia to Egypt, where auto manufacturers legally assembled and sold the unlicensed vehicles.
It was a classic example of the state\u2019s contradictory approach toward the informal economy, which accounts for as much as 50 percent to 60 percent of Egypt\u2019s GDP, according to the International Labor Organization.
\u201cBecause of its limited capacities, the state lives with deeply embedded informality,\u201d or do-it-yourself infrastructure, like unauthorized housing, which saves the government from providing mass services to the poor, said Amr Adly, a Cairo-based political economy expert.
The business exploded, with rickshaws becoming especially popular with disabled people, the elderly and women who want to avoid harassment at crowded bus stops.
But that could soon change.
Now President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi\u2019s government, which has spent the past five years trying to revamp Egypt\u2019s image, is taking aim at the unregulated vehicles.
Last year, it passed a traffic law requiring that all new buyers license their tuk-tuks. Ghabbour Group, the country\u2019s largest auto producer, was hard hit, its tuk-tuk sales dropping by 60 percent.
In September, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced a sweeping plan to phase out tuk-tuks in 20 governorates, swapping them for seven-seater gas-powered minivans. The proposal, offering drivers a payoff period of up to five years, bars all tuk-tuks from cities and main roads but allows new and licensed tuk-tuks to continue operating in narrow alleys and rural villages.
Egypt\u2019s finance and military production ministries, along with three major auto manufacturers, have opened an economic review to hammer out the details, and expect the microbuses to hit the streets within a year.
El-Qassim, the spokesman for the development ministry, said the tuk-tuks contribute to congestion, air pollution and fatal car crashes \u2014 even terrorism, since the government can\u2019t trace unlicensed vehicles. He described them as a drag on Egypt\u2019s economic productivity, keeping teenagers out of school and depriving the state of revenue from registration fees and taxes.
But skeptics question the logic of changing a tuk-tuk prized for its tiny size, high maneuverability and cheap fare for a microbus that manufacturers expect to be four times the size and price.
\u201cIt\u2019s a reflection of how the state is more obsessed with appearances than investing in the infrastructure of where people actually live,\u201d said Rabab El-Mahdi, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo.
Since taking power in 2014, El-Sisi has focused on ambitious mega-projects, building high-end housing complexes and a sprawling $45 billion new administrative capital in the desert outside Cairo. The bigger goal is to revive tourism and attract foreign investment as the country recovers from the turmoil of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled Mubarak.
Meanwhile, much of Cairo has spiraled into disrepair and decay. The official statistics agency recently reported that one third of Egyptians live in poverty. Tough austerity measures imposed to stave off economic collapse have slashed subsidies and dramatically hiked up prices of everything from subway fares to drinking water, taking a heavy toll on working-class Egyptians.
In September, sharp economic discontent and allegations of government corruption marshaled small but rare protests against the president. Security forces arrested thousands, escalating a long-running crackdown.
\u201cThe state is much more willing and able to go down with a heavy hand,\u201d said El-Mahdi, adding that the military mindset has created a governmentwide shift.
Still, observers note that enforcing the new plan will pose a challenge. Much remains uncertain, including how the government will guarantee registration among those more accustomed to bribing police than obeying traffic laws.
\u201cPeople will be trying to resist, to circumvent these developments, to go on living,\u201d said Yasser Elsheshtawy, professor of architecture at Columbia University. \u201cThis is something very Egyptian.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAIRO: Motorized rickshaws known as tuk-tuks have ruled the streets of Cairo\u2019s slums for the past two decades, squeezing through dusty alleys, dodging trash bins and fruit stands, blaring rhythmic electro-pop and navigating the city\u2019s chaos to haul millions of Egyptians home every day.Now the government is taking its most ambitious stand yet again against…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}