During her participation in the opening session of the Conference on Sustainability and Economic Transformations in Luxor Minister of Planning and Economic Development: Stimulating development partnerships is one of the main pillars of Egypt's Vision 2030
04 March 2022
Egypt’s Minister of Planning & Economic Development, H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said participated recently in the opening session of the second edition of the Conference on Sustainability and Economic Transformations which is held by the Federation of Industries and the Orman Association in Luxor Governorate from 2-5 March.
The conference was held with the participation of some ministers, heads of banks, and representatives of major international companies.The opening session was attended by Dr. Ashraf Sobhi, Minister of Youth and Sports, Ambassador Nabila Makram, Minister of Immigration, Ms. Nevin Al-Kabbaj, Minister of Social Solidarity, Ms. Nevin Jameh, Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Mohamed Maait, Minister of Finance, and Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, and Mr. Hossam Qabbani, head of the Orman Association.The session also witnessed the presence of Eng. Mohamed El Sewedy, President of the Federation of Industries, and Mr. Roberto Suarez, Secretary-General of the International Organization of Employers also participated, and the session was moderated by Dr. Sayed Turki, of the Federation of Egyptian Industries, the general coordinator of the conference.During her speech, Dr. Hala El-Said indicated that the cooperation in organizing this event reflects the participatory approach in achieving development that the state is keen on. El-Said pointed to the memorandum of cooperation signed on the sidelines of the conference between the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, the Federation of Industries, and the Orman Association to document this cooperation.
El-Said reviewed the developments of the global economy, noting the exceptional and unprecedented conditions that the global economy is going through due to the worsening crisis of the emerging Covid-19 virus and mutated strains of this virus, in addition to the geopolitical changes that the world is currently witnessing.El-Said also referred to the efforts of the Egyptian state to achieve sustainable development, explaining that when the Covid-19 crisis and the subsequent economic and social crises came.“The Egyptian state had already gone a long way in reforms and serious efforts that it started seven years ago intending to achieve comprehensive and sustainable development, by launching " Egypt Vision 2030”, in February 2016,” She said.Dr. Hala El-Said affirmed the state’s keenness during the past seven years to continue the boom in public investments to improve the quality of life for citizens, upgrade services and stimulate comprehensive and sustainable economic growth.
The cumulative total of public investments during the period 2015/14 - 21/2022 amounted to about EGP 3.6 trillion ($230 billion).
During her speech, El-Said referred to the Presidential initiative entitled “Decent Life” as a living model for sustainable development, as the preliminary phase of the initiative was launched in January 2019, targeting 375 villages, and the initiative contributed to reducing poverty rates in some villages by 11 percentage points. It also resulted in an improvement in the availability of basic services by about 50 percentage points in some villages.The initiative also contributed to mitigating the effects of the Coronavirus on the lives of 4.5 million citizens.She also pointed to the establishment of The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) as one of the mechanisms to enhance partnership with the private sector and achieve sustainable development. TSFE was established in 2018 within the framework of the Egyptian state's plan to achieve sustainable development (Egypt Vision 2030), and what this requires of increasing the volume of investments and diversifying funding sources.
On the structural reforms program, El-Said said that it aims to transform the Egyptian economy into a productive, knowledge-based, and competitive economy in the global economy, to encourage inclusive growth, create decent and productive job opportunities, diversify and develop production patterns.The program includes six axes of work, the main one dealing with restructuring the Egyptian economy to diversify the production structure by focusing on the sectors of the real economy.El-Said explained that the measures, policies, and efforts taken by the Egyptian state contributed to strengthening the elements of resilience and resilience of the Egyptian economy in the face of the crisis. This was reflected in the positive indicators that the Egyptian economy witnessed. Despite the repercussions of the pandemic, the Egyptian economy succeeded in achieving a growth rate of 3.3% during the fiscal year 20/2021 and 3.6% in the year 2020/19. As Egypt came among a limited number of countries in the world that achieved growth in light of the pandemic, the growth rate is expected to reach about 6.2-6.5% in the current fiscal year 21/2022, driven by the growth spurt achieved in the first half of the year (9 %), the highest growth rate in 20 years.She also indicated Egypt's readiness to host the summit of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (COP 27) for 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, which comes as a reflection of the pivotal role that Egypt plays regionally and internationally, especially as this conference will provide a platform for Arab, African and developing countries in general to express requirements in this important development issue.