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Arab Housing Day October 3, 2022

Under the slogan “Development of societal thought for the components of contemporary housing – contemporary housing for all,” the Directorate of Housing, one of the formations of the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Public Municipalities, organized on Tuesday 4/10/2022 at ten in the morning in the main hall, the Arab Housing Day celebration (which is held annually First Monday of October).
The celebration was held under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of Construction, Housing and Public Municipalities, Engineer Nazanin Mohammed Wassou, and was attended by Eng. Jaber Abed Khaji / Technical Undersecretary of the Ministry, Expert Engineer Fadel Muhammad Kazem / General Manager of Al-Mu’tasim Company, Engineer Saif Al-Assaf / General Manager of Ashur and Al-Rasheed Companies and Engineer Dr. Muhammad Haider Al-Sakni, Assistant Director General of the Engineering Construction Directorate , Engineer Haider Fadel Al-Mayali / Director General of the Directorate of Housing, Mr. Nabil Ghazi Thajeel/ Assistant Director General of the Directorate of Housing, and the ladies and Gentlemen heads of departments and employees of the Ministry’s formations.
The celebration opened with a verse from the Holy Quran, followed by the speech of the Technical Undersecretary of the Ministry, in which he pointed out the magnitude of the challenges facing the implementation of housing policies and plans, starting with the expansion of slums and the bulldozing of agricultural lands to convert them into residential lands, passing through the damage caused by the terrorist thought in quite a few housing projects in The governorates and the scarcity of financial allocations that negatively affect the movement of the wheel of reconstruction and the effective and important sectors related to the semi-idled housing sector and unable to play its role in activating and supporting it. And he showed the Ministry’s need for expert advisory institutions in the field of housing, and for specialized financing institutions, all of which need a real state’s will to implement housing plans.

The Director General of the Directorate of Housing delivered a speech in which he touched on the challenges facing the implementation of the housing policy and the activation and development of the housing sector, and their impact (negatively or positively) is not limited to the amount of money the government allocates to this sector, but rather the challenges reach the community itself: intellect, orientation, basic requirements and ambitions. He stressed the Directorate of Housing’s serious endeavor to address the issue of ownership of lands on which residential complexes are built by preparing a draft resolution for the Council of Ministers that includes amending the provisions of Cabinet Resolution No. (223) for the year (2019) to replace the term empowerment with the term ownership, in addition to activating the provisions of Cabinet Resolution No. ( 394 for the year 2012) which allows this Directorate to own the lands on which residential complexes are built, for a symbolic fee. He also referred to the adoption of the methodology of converting some investment plan projects to announce them investment opportunities in coordination with the National Investment Commission, in order to overcome the obstacles to providing financial allocations for implementation; in addition to adopting the principle of cooperation with some Arab countries to implement some housing projects, such as the Egyptian Agreement, which would open horizons of cooperation and benefit from the experiences of Arab countries in the field of implementing housing projects.

While the speech of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Executive Director of the Habitat (which was delivered on his behalf by the member of the National Committee for Human Settlements in Iraq / Director of the Department of Housing Studies and Policies) emphasized that no one was left behind, meaning that cities should respond to the needs of women and children bridging the gap between the affluent and the destitute within and between urban and rural areas and within developed and developing regions and between them as well. It also emphasized the adoption of human-centered policies, promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns, and giving priority to building an infrastructure that takes into account environmental considerations and is able to withstand.

As for the speech of Mr. Assistant Director General of the Engineering Construction Directorate, it included a presentation entitled “Sustainability in Housing Projects”, in which he addressed the sustainable development goals related to the housing sector and sustainability assessment methods, then reviewed some international, Arab and local investment projects, in which he showed through comparative analysis the importance and the impact of investment projects’ commitment to sustainable development standards.

While the presentation titled “Reading in Housing Planning Trends 2017-2022” presented by the Director of the Housing Studies and Policies Department in the Directorate of Housing included a review of the most important planning documents adopted for the period 2017-2022 represented in the document of updating the national housing policy, and resolutions 70 and 419 for the year 2019 and Resolution 338 for the year 2021 (Dari Initiative). This reading summed up the assertion that the national housing policy and the executive plan are the basic compass in organizing other detailed planning directions, and that the development of societal thought in designing or organizing the components of (modern) housing to be available to all is still linked to the outputs and results of the existing planning trends now, and this will require more of the efforts and allocations before reaching the concept of (contemporary housing), and that the components of contemporary housing depend on contemporary technologies in the provision of technical infrastructure services in the main, as well as the orientation, but rather the emphasis on the flexibility of internal and external spaces for housing to achieve the best use of the urban (physical) structure.

The Head of the Investment Division in the Property Department gave a presentation entitled “The Directorate’s Projects Executed by the Investment Method,” in which she reviewed the Directorate of Housing’s directions in addressing the execution of housing projects through investment, whether some projects of the Directorate’s investment plan or other projects.

As for the conclusion of the presentations, it was entitled “Arab experiences in the development of the production of housing units,” which was prepared by a senior chief engineer in the Engineering Authentication and Consultation Department, which reviewed, through comparative analysis, housing patterns and the quality of tenure in three Arab countries (the Republic of Iraq, Algeria and the Republic of Egypt).
The celebration was concluded by extending thanks and appreciation to the ladies and gentlemen participating and attending and wishing all success.

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