Egypt's Assistant Minister of Planning participates in the opening of the Eighth Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians
15 June 2022
Dr. Jamil Helmy, Assistant Minister of Planning for Follow-up Affairs of the Sustainable Development Plan, participated on behalf of H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said in the opening of the Eighth Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians entitled "Young Parliamentarians for Climate Action".
The conference will be hosted by the House of Representatives and will be held under the patronage of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, in Sharm El-Sheikh.
During Dr. Hala El-Said’s speech, delivered on her behalf by Dr. Jamil Helmy, she referred to Egypt’s launch of the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030 in February 2016 as the organizing framework for the planning system in Egypt.
On the economic dimension, El-Said explained that the Egyptian state has implemented a national program for economic and social reform, intending to reduce the deficit in the state’s general budget and public debt, provide a favorable climate for private investment, and advance economic growth, without affecting low-income people by strengthening social safety nets.
El-Said added that given the state's interest in the environmental dimension as one of the most important dimensions of sustainable development, Egypt's Vision 2030 aims "to make the environmental dimension an essential axis in all development sectors."
With this in mind, the Egyptian government launched the first guide to environmental sustainability criteria: the Strategic Framework for Green Recovery.
In this context, El-Said referred to the government's adoption of the implementation of many green national projects, which are divided into various development sectors: the agriculture and irrigation sectors.
El-Said explained that in the drinking water and sanitation sector: the government is adopting a strategy for desalinating sea water at a cost of more than EGP 134 billion during the period (2020-2050), and expanding the establishment of triple sewage treatment plants.
El-Said talked about Egypt's launch of green bonds worth $750 million, which made it the first country in the Middle East and North Africa to issue this type of bond, to finance green and environmentally friendly projects.
El-Said affirmed that Egypt is well aware that it is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, although it is one of the least polluting countries in the world. Therefore, it has taken serious and ambitious steps in addressing climate change, perhaps the most important of which is the launch of the "National Climate Change Strategy in Egypt 2050".
El-Said explained that the government recently approved a set of incentives to encourage private investment in green fields, including the production, storage, and export of green hydrogen and green ammonia, the manufacture of electric vehicles and industries feeding them, and the necessary infrastructure such as charging stations.