Deputy Minister of Planning participates in the opening session of the annual conference of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University
27 June 2022
H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, said that the reform efforts and the diversity of sectors that characterize the Egyptian economy, contributed to the Egyptian economy becoming more flexible and able to absorb external economic shocks, including the growing regional dangers and the emerging Coronavirus crisis.
This came during her speech delivered on her behalf by Dr. Ahmed Kamali, Deputy Minister of Planning, at the opening session of the annual conference of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University entitled "The New Egyptian State and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges".
The conference was attended by Prof. Dr. Mohamed Othman Elkhosht - President of Cairo University, Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Saeed - Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Leslie Reed - Director of the USAID Mission in Egypt, Dr. Salwa Tabbala, Senior Governance Adviser, USAID.
El-Said reviewed the most prominent efforts of the Egyptian state to achieve comprehensive and sustainable development in recent years in light of the current challenges.
El-Said stressed that the government’s implementation of many reforms, through the first phase of the national economic and social reform program in November 2016, has led to achieving overall stability and comprehensive growth, which was reflected in the positive indicators that the Egyptian economy witnessed during the year 2020/19.
El-Said added that after that came the National Structural Reform Program, which was launched in April 2021 and is considered the second phase of the National Program for Economic and Social Reform, to restructure the Egyptian economy and diversify the production structure by focusing on the sectors of the real economy.
El-Said pointed to the main features of the sustainable development plan for the fiscal year 22/23, which was developed based on indicators of the performance of the Egyptian economy during the second half of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, to include several priorities and sustainable development goals that represent the Egyptian state's comprehensive strategic direction in the period. targeted.
The state’s mechanisms for building people and empowering youth in the new state, El-Said affirmed the government’s interest in education, expanding investment in people, empowering young people, and qualifying them for the labor market and leadership to achieve the strategic goal and the general and comprehensive orientation adopted by the state.
It is the construction of the Egyptian human being in its comprehensive sense.
El-Said added that in confirmation of the mutual and close relationship between youth empowerment and building the new state, the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt's Vision 2030 targeted education as a common goal among all axes in the economic dimension, the social dimension, and the environmental dimension.
El-Said clarified that building the future and laying the foundations for the new Egyptian state cannot take place in isolation from achieving Inclusive Growth, sustainable growth, and balanced regional development, a concept that represents one of the main pillars of Egypt's Vision 2030.
El-Said referred to the sustainable development plan for the fiscal year 22/23, which includes a set of spatial development programs and initiatives, allowing EGP 1.4 billion to be directed to establish government service complexes in the governorates and to develop 75 urban communities within the first phase of the "Decent Life" initiative, with funds of EGP 10 billion .
El-Said highlighted the most prominent returns of economic reform efforts and prospects, explaining that the year 21/2022 was expected to achieve a growth of 6.4% after the gradual recovery from the pandemic, especially that the first nine months of the year recorded a high growth rate in the range of 7.8%.