During her speech at the opening of the first annual workshop of the Women's Studies Unit at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University

Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, said that talking about the important role that women play in economic activity, and the need to enhance women's economic empowerment, is no longer just a conversation with a social dimension or aims only to achieve gender equality, but has become an economic necessity to utilize the productive and creative energies of women.

This came during Dr. Hala El-Said's speech at the opening of the first annual workshop of the Women's Studies Unit at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University, held under the title "Women and Public Participation: Theoretical and Practical Approaches."

El-Said emphasized that women's economic empowerment is pivotal in Egypt's Vision 2030, and the country's development orientation. The 2030 vision pillars are based on gender considerations, as women were the main partner in preparing, formulating and implementing this vision.

El-Said highlighted that the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Women 2030 aims to address the factors affecting women's economic empowerment. The minister explained that this strategy has identified several key quantitative indicators to measure the progress achieved in the field of women's economic empowerment.

El-Said pointed out that the Egyptian state has worked in recent years to implement the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Women 2030 through several mechanisms represented in creating a legislative, institutional and cultural environment appropriate for women's economic empowerment. The Egyptian state is keen to integrate the concepts of gender equality and women's empowerment into educational curricula, in the various stages to spread culture and rational thought for the empowerment of women, she explained.

The plan to build the Egyptian human capital, which is one of the strategic objectives of the Egyptian state, included the rehabilitation of all government cadres, both male and female. This is done through packages of training programs, most notably the program for the rehabilitation of executive women leaders, which is implemented by the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in cooperation with the National Council for Women and the Administrative Control Authority, and UN Women, with a total of 300 female graduates from Egyptian women leaders.

The first batch of the program graduated in July 2019 from Cairo governorate, and the second batch graduated last February from several governorates (5 governorates), which enhances the state’s efforts and orientation for localization of the sustainable development goals in the Egyptian governorates.El-Said pointed out that within the framework of Egypt's interest in strengthening cooperation with various countries of the world, especially African countries in the field of developing and building women's capacities. Accordingly, a version of this program was launched for African women leaders last January and included the training of 100 women from 45 brotherly African countries. Cooperation continued in In 2020, as an association for women graduates from the African Women Leaders Program was established, and activities and events continued, with a series of conferences and virtual workshops (10 seminars) held in cooperation with the American University in Cairo.Dr. Hala El-Said pointed out the interest in women's economic empowerment through the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector, which is one of the main sectors that accommodate decent and productive work opportunities for women in various Egyptian regions and governorates. Therefore, the SME sector receives priority and special attention from the Egyptian government for its excellence in achieving added value. SMEs contribute to the regional balance of development, which is one of the main concepts and targets that underpin Egypt's 2030 vision.

In the context of talking about encouraging women's empowerment through entrepreneurship, El-Said drew attention to the achievements of the Rowad 2030 project in the field of women's empowerment, which is represented in the increase in the participation of women in the Master of Entrepreneurship. The master's degree program was implemented in cooperation with the Universities of Cambridge and Cairo to reach 37% of the total participants. The percentage of women's participation in the SME grant recorded 50%, and the percentage of female trainers in the Start Your Future campaign in schools and universities reached 40% of the total number of trainers across different governorates.

El-Said showcased the successes achieved by Egypt in the field of women's empowerment in the past few years, including the increase in the proportion of women in government jobs. She explained that Egyptian women hold 45% of the total government jobs in the country, way above the global average of 32%. Also, the rate of women's participation in boards of directors has improved, from 9.7% in 2017 to 10.2% in 2018.

In Egypt's banking sector this the percentage of women’s representation as members of the board reached 12% in 2019 compared to about 10% in 2018. The increase is a clear indicator of the great interest in strengthening the database necessary to monitor the progress achieved in women's representation in boards of directors. The Women on Board report is issued periodically in cooperation with the National Council for Women, the Financial Supervision Authority, and the American University in Cairo.

El-Said added that the percentage of female executives reached 7.1%, which is higher than the 5.4% average in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)region. Moreover, the percentage of female editors-in-chief of national newspapers reached about 18%, she explained.Regarding the financial inclusion of women, the minister said that according to the latest government studies, the percentage of women who own bank accounts has reached 27%, after it was only 14% in 2014. Egyptian women also received 51% of the total loans directed to micro-businesses, and the percentage of women who defaulted on loan payments did not exceed the percentage of 1%. 
On the efforts of the Egyptian state to tackle the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, El-Said referred to the Observatory of the Egyptian government's actions to confront the negative effects of the coronavirus on various sectors. The unit was launched by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development in June.The minister stressed that the Egyptian government was the first government in the world to issue a paper of proposed programs and policies regarding Egypt's plan for a rapid response to the special needs of women during the spread of the novel coronavirus.