During her speech at (APRM) meeting on the Report of the Voluntary National Review for Africa to participate in the High-Level Political Forum 2021

(APRM)'s meeting is a great opportunity to evaluate the progress of African countries in achieving SDGs: Planning Minister
Teamwork and cooperation bring us closer to achieving the implementation of Agenda 2063 under the slogan "Africa We Want”: says Hala El-Said

Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development participated recently via video conference at the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM ) meeting on the Report of the Voluntary National Review for Africa in preparation for the participation of African countries in the HLPF 2021, in the presence of Prof. Eddy Maloka, CEO of the African Peer Review Mechanism and several African ministers and ambassadors.During her speech, Dr. Hala El-Said said that this regional platform is a huge opportunity to exchange experiences to localize, monitor, and evaluate the progress of African countries in the sustainable development goals after a year full of exceptional challenges due to the Corona pandemic, which has negatively affected the whole world.El-Said added that the Corona pandemic represented an unprecedented challenge to public health, employment, and work issues, in addition to a direct impact on economic activity, as it affected both the supply and demand sides at the same time.“The pandemic led to a significant decline in foreign trade and a decrease in foreign investment, which made the worst global recession in decades,” El-Said explained.El-Said indicated that Egypt's Vision 2030 is being implemented in light of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with the participation of all development partners from the private sector and civil society to achieve these goals.El-Said explained that Egypt is working to encourage partnership between the private and public sectors, to ease the financing burden on the government's general budget, providing a high level of service to citizens, and attracting foreign direct investment. From this standpoint, The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) was established, which is considered a major mechanism to encourage partnership between the public and private sectors.El-Said pointed out that TSFE aims to mobilize resources and maximize the utilization of the state’s vast assets and resources, in addition to maximizing its value and increasing joint investment with various international and regional institutions and sovereign funds.El-Said indicated that Egypt submitted the voluntary national review report at the high-level political forum twice, one in 2016 and the other in 2018, and Egypt is now preparing to submit the third report in 2021.
"The previous report dealt with some of the challenges facing Egypt and ways to deal with them. For example, the population increase represents a challenge and a special opportunity that about 60% of the population is youth, which stimulates the Egyptian state to build the Egyptian people, invest in health and education, and the continuous expansion of infrastructure and the establishment of units Residential, especially for low-income groups,” El-Said explained.On Egypt's participation this year, El-Said indicated that the voluntary national review report for 2021 will focus on the Egyptian response to the challenges resulting from the Corona pandemic and the importance of sustainable financing and green economy issues.During her speech, El-Said reviewed the Egyptian state’s strategy to confront the Corona pandemic. She indicated that the Egyptian government had adopted a proactive strategy at a very early stage, to reduce the impact of the epidemic on various sectors.This strategy focused on achieving a balance between protecting the health of citizens and maintaining economic activity.In this context, the Egyptian government adopted an approach consisting of three dimensions, which is to reduce the burden on the most affected sectors such as tourism, aviation, small and medium enterprises, and the industrial sector through various measures, including lowering interest rates, postponing tax dues, loan repayment, and sovereign fees.The second dimension represents support for informal employment through the disbursement of monthly cash grants, in addition to creating a comprehensive database for more than 6 million workers to enable them to obtain decent jobs.The third dimension deals with rearranging priorities with an increased focus on flexible and flexible sectors and activities such as Education and health, digital transformation, agriculture, industrialization, and the green economy.El-Said noted that the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development has monitored the Egyptian government's efforts to mitigate the negative impact of the crisis by launching a "Corona Policy Tracker" on the official website of the Ministry, divided into sectors and categories to facilitate the monitoring and follow-up process.
In the conclusion of her speech, El-Said pointed out that the Corona pandemic represents a catalyst for change, real commitment, and solidarity among development partners from the government, the private sector, and civil society, stressing that collective action and cooperation bring us closer to reaching the implementation of Agenda 2063 under the slogan "Africa We Want".