Minister of Planning and Economic Development participates in the meeting of the African Affairs Committee in the Parliament
06 March 2022
Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, participated in the meeting of the African Affairs Committee in the Parliament, in the presence of Dr. Sherif El-Gabaly - Chairperson the Committee, and members of the Committee.
At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Hala El-Said affirmed keenness to continue cooperation and coordination between the ministry and the esteemed parliament and its various qualitative committees, especially the African Affairs Committee, whose vision and objectives are consistent and complementary with the direction of the Egyptian government and state to strengthen relations with the sister African country.
Concerning developing trade and increasing Egyptian exports to African markets, El-Said pointed out that strengthening cooperation between Egypt and African countries is one of the priorities that the Ministry of Planning seeks to achieve through many of the files the ministry is concerned with, whether concerning developing trade between Egypt and African countries and increasing Egyptian exports to these countries.
El-Said highlighted the President’s assignments, during March 2021, to form a committee to study and develop an action plan for a comprehensive strategy aimed at doubling Egypt’s exports to African countries by 2025.
The strategy ensures that Egypt will adopt an export strategy specifically directed to deal with African markets, explaining that the most prominent goals of the strategy are to double Egyptian exports to the African continent, to reach $10 billion by 2025.The strategy also includes the preparation of a proposed strategic plan to develop Egyptian exports to the African continent, pointing to the committee's most prominent recommendations, which are emphasizing the importance of concerted efforts of all Egyptian stakeholders to achieve the Egyptian state's direction to strengthen cooperation relations with African countries.El-Said stressed the importance of working to achieve economic integration and networking with African countries, in addition to the importance of establishing logistic zones, and expanding the role of the Export Support and Development Fund and the General Investment Authority in promoting trade with the African continent.El-Said reviewed the role of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development in achieving compatibility with Africa’s 2063 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Since 2018, the Ministry has undertaken the task of updating Egypt’s Vision 2030 in line with both the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and Africa’s Agenda 2063.El-Said indicated that Egypt seeks to join the integrated planning and reporting mechanisms platform of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), which aims to support the ability of member countries to ensure consistency and achieve compatibility between international and continental development goals on the one hand.El-Said concluded her speech by referring to the efforts of cooperation in the field of capacity building and qualifying African cadres, as the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, through the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, the training arm of the ministry, adopted a set of initiatives.