Gov’t works tirelessly to activate partnerships with the private sector & civil society: Minister of Planning
22 November 2022
H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, participated in the fifth session of the Development Leaders’ Summit (The Fingerprint Summit), organized by the "Terous Misr Foundation" Foundation, under the title "The First Forum to Promote Investment Opportunities in the Public and Private Sectors."
The fifth session was launched under the auspices of H.E. Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Egypt’s Prime Minister, and in the presence of Ms. Nevin Al-Qabbaj, Minister of Social Solidarity, World-renowned scholar and thinker, Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazleh, Engineer Hani Mahmoud, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Terous Misr Foundation, Engineer Mohamed Al-Suwaidi, President of the Federation of Industries, and representatives of economic and investment organizations.
During her speech, Dr. Hala El-Said stressed the importance of the golden triangle of development which includes the government, the private sector, and civil society. Therefore, the Foundation's primary role is to affirm the direction in which the Egyptian state is headed regarding the activation of partnerships with both the private sector and civil society.
This is part of implementing the state's 2030 vision.
Dr. Hala El-Said reviewed the efforts of the Egyptian state to encourage and stimulate the growth of domestic and foreign direct investments.
El-Said said that since the launch of the first phase of the economic reform program in 2016, the state has begun to take a set of parallel steps, pointing to the legislative reform package, the modernization of the investment law, the industrial licensing law, and the market law.
El-Said also indicated that over the years from 2016 to 2019/2020, the Egyptian state made large investments in infrastructure, attracting domestic and foreign private investment, and providing a quality of life for the Egyptian citizen.
The Minister of Planning and Economic Development stated that Egypt had launched a national structural reform program based on several pillars. The first one emphasizes that agriculture, industry, communication, and information technology are the primary components of growth.
This is done to make the Egyptian economy better prepared for crises, and the second pillar includes increasing the participation of the private sector in the development process.
El-Said referred to the "State Ownership Policy Document", explaining to investors the role of the state in various sectors as a regulator of economic activity according to market mechanisms, and how the state can exit from activities, pointing to setting some incentives for the localization of industries, by focusing on green economy projects.
El-Said mentioned the private sector participation law, which was updated to eliminate some obstacles, pointing to The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) as an influential investment arm of the state that works as a partner for the private sector, by studying investment opportunities in the country and making these investment products available to the private sector.
El-Said highlighted the Tahrir Complex project, which was put forward at the level of international investment, and ideas received by a group of international investors, which was awarded to an international investor, stressing that all this makes TSFE an ideal partner for the private sector in the development process.
El-Said also referred to the third pillar of the structural reform program, which is related to institutional matters, restructuring and rearranging some institutions to accelerate the development process.
Moreover, she referred to the world’s crises, which directly affect developing countries and expose them to unexpected external shocks.
El-Said stressed the importance of the structural reform program, strengthening investment in the real sectors of the Egyptian economy, and investment in the human element.
At the end of her speech, El-Said referred to the launch of Egypt's National Initiative for Smart Green Projects at the governorate level under the auspices of the President of the Republic, which took place within the framework of COP27 to involve the local community in green projects, pointing to the winning of 18 projects that are now networking with financial and banking institutions.