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Within the framework of government efforts to enhance the efficiency of the public sector and distribute services fairly across various regions of the country, relevant authorities at the Ministry of Planning are studying a structural proposal aimed at redistributing government and service departments based on precise spatial and sectoral standards and priorities. This will be implemented through consecutive work phases that contribute to facilitating citizens' access to essential services, most notably health, education, and schooling, away from administrative congestion in major city centers. In this context, the Director General of the Regional and Local Development Department in the ministry, Mohammed Mohsen Al-Sayed, explained that this orientation aims to enhance the vital role of sub-districts and districts to become active service and developmental centers, alongside supporting the policy of spatial development dissemination and limiting the severe concentration of jobs and services in major urban centers, as well as stimulating local economic development by strengthening the role of government services in supporting productive and investment activities. The official added that the proposed implementation mechanism relies fundamentally on redistributing employees from institutions and departments that include large and excessive numbers of them to their counterparts that suffer a clear shortage of staff, adopting the spatial dimension as a main criterion to ensure the success of this step and its contribution to consolidating the foundations of comprehensive and sustainable national development. Al-Sayed emphasized that spatial planning represents a strategic and balanced approach that combines the criteria of economic efficiency and social justice in distributing investments and the fruits of development among the regions of the single country, pointing out that this planning focuses on investing the comparative advantage in distributing economic activities and events across provinces, and is considered the optimal method for dealing with spatial disparity and reducing gaps in the levels of economic and urban development in various areas of the country. He pointed out that spatial development policies are heading directly towards supporting small and medium-sized cities, in addition to villages and rural areas, through developing currently existing infrastructure or establishing new cities and centers based on approved planning standards, with the aim of alleviating continuous pressure on major cities and investing in other less fortunate areas to obtain the fruits of development, which contributes to achieving population and social stability according to the comparative advantages of each province, district, and sub-district.
