The resolution to prohibit state-owned enterprises (SOEs) from implementing social housing projects has been passed by the People’s Majlis Committee on State-Owned Enterprises.
After meeting with senior officials from the Ministry of National Planning, Housing, and Infrastructure and the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), the committee drafted its report on projects carried out by state-owned companies to provide housing for their employees, which was unanimously approved by its members.
According to the report, the housing projects have limited the firms’ cash flow and made it difficult to meet the company mandates.
The parliamentary committee recommended that the government not award housing projects to state-owned enterprises, arguing that it would be more beneficial to the state and the public if the housing projects were carried out by construction businesses.
It further noted that entrusting housing projects to a firm whose core job is not the construction of housing projects will have an influence on the company’s income generation, inflate its debt, and negatively impact its liquidity ratio in the long run.
Furthermore, the committee recommended state-owned enterprises to properly manage their finances and asked the government to resolve concerns with some housing projects that have yet to begin fieldwork.
The committee highlighted that while HDC has leased property to 15 businesses for housing projects, construction has only begun at six of them, urging that HDC take back the property on which the projects have yet to commence and that the government sell the flats that remain unoccupied once all workers of state-owned firms have received their units.
