370,000 spatial variables within the IT infrastructure integration project: Planning Minister

Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development said that the ministry has taken many steps and achievements during the last period on several pillars, including raising the efficiency of public spending and evidence-based development planning.
El-Said indicated that the Ministry seeks to bring about real change in the management of public investments and provide accurate and instantaneous information to the decision-maker by expanding the scope of data collection, conducting surveys, establishing large databases, and making use of them to make informed decisions and better target public spending. This also contributes to protecting public funds and establishing a system of accountability and governance.This came during Dr. Hala El-Said's statement of the performance of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development today before the Parliament headed by Counselor Hanafi Jabali, Speaker of the House.El-Said emphasized the ministry's keenness to switch to "evidence-based planning", and to link databases to the planning process.
El-Said indicated that the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) has implemented about 26 studies, surveys, and field research in the last two years, including the income, expenditure, and consumer research for 2017/2018, 2019/2020, the 2017/2018 economic census.



El-Said also drew attention to the implementation of the project "Integration of the Information Infrastructure of the Egyptian Planning System" and the establishment of the main spatial change center in the Military Survey Department and an exchange center at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, to help in the accurate follow-up of all projects and spatial changes that occur in Egypt, depending on the latest satellite technology.The project currently includes 370,000 spatial variables, and these efforts have contributed to counting building violations, as its data are integrated with 12 government agencies.El-Said pointed to the expansion of the application of "Program and Performance Plans and Budgets", which represent one of the main objectives of the state's economic policy, in light of the importance of program and performance plans in ensuring the best distribution of resources.El-Said asserted that the Ministry of Planning has worked to develop practical solutions to the obstacles.“On the legislative side, the new public planning bill adopted the program and performance methodology, and on the institutional side, a program and performance plan unit was established in the ministry, while enhancing the capabilities of the state's workers by organizing 495 training programs and workshops that benefited 3,725 trainees,” El-Said said.
El-Said continued that the stages of preparing the country's investment plan were automated through the "integrated system for preparing and following up the investment plan", to ensure greater transparency, objectivity, and ease of procedures, in addition to launching a "performance" system to follow-up and evaluate government performance through specific developmental performance indicators. It measures the level of achievement executed in all government programs, and it is the first system of its kind in the history of Egypt.The Minister of Planning and Economic Development stated that a plan was implemented to “rationalize investment spending and rearrange priorities” in the 20/2021 plan, resulting in financial savings directed to priority development sectors in light of dealing with the repercussions of the Corona pandemic, such as the health sector, and public works projects that provide more job opportunities. In recent years, efforts have been intensified to "localize sustainable development goals" in the governorates and to maximize their comparative advantages, and set an index to determine the comparative advantage of each governorate.

El-Said also indicated the preparation of the first follow-up guide on "Responsive Planning for Gender Issues", which works to integrate the social dimension into development plans so that the programs, projects, and activities set by government agencies within the framework of the investment plan guarantee equality and equal opportunities among social groups, and serve priority issues for women, children and people with special needs.On the "Quality of Life: Basic Needs" indicator to measure the impact of the "A Decent Life" initiative on improving the citizens' standard of living, El-Said indicated that the recently prepared mid-term report revealed a decrease in the average poverty rate by about 14 percentage points, and expected an improvement in the rate of access to basic service by 18 percentage points in the 143 villages of the first phase.
El-Said pointed out the launch of the first integrated electronic system to prepare the plan for the "A Decent Life" initiative, follow up on the implementation of projects, and measure the development impact of the initiative.
El-Said said that the ministry assumes the duties of the technical secretariat of the Committee for Regulating and Limiting Foreign Borrowing, starting from 2019, when the Committee is headed by the Prime Minister, through which external borrowing is controlled within the limits of what is required to carry out projects that contribute to the transfer and localization of technology, or include a foreign component.El-Said indicated that 31 meetings were held between October 2018 and December 2020, to study 85 external borrowing requests.The committee postponed or not accepted about 45% of these requests so that foreign funding is limited to projects that include a foreign component or contribute to the effective transfer of technology.