Planning, Local Development Ministers discuss the local development program projects in Upper Egypt

Planning, Local Development Ministers discuss the local development program projects in Upper Egypt

H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, who is also serving as Vice-Chairperson of the Local Development Program Steering Committee in Upper Egypt, and Major General Hisham Amna, Minister of Local Development, chaired a small meeting of the Program Steering Committee.

The meeting came within the framework of following up on the progress in implementing the local development program in Upper Egypt. A loan from the World Bank partially funds this program.

 

The meeting witnessed the presence of Dr. Ahmed Kamali, Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Hisham Al-Helbawy, Director of the Local Development Program in Upper Egypt, Dr. Jamil Helmy, Assistant Minister of Planning for Follow-up Affairs of the Sustainable Development Plan, and Dr. Heba Mogheeb, Head of the Regional Planning Sector.

Dr. Sherine Khalaf, Head of the Industry and Trade Sector at the Ministry of Planning, Eng. Mohamed El-Sayed, Assistant Minister of Local Development for Planning, and several leaders of the two ministries also attended.

During the meeting, Dr. Hala El-Said stressed the need to take into account the development gaps between the governorates and work to direct additional resources to the governorates most in need in a way that reduces these gaps.

El-Said pointed out that spatial social justice is one of the goals of the Egyptian government's plan, explaining that interest in the development of Upper Egypt comes within the goals of Egypt's Vision 2030 as well as the medium or long-term plan.

El-Said said that the implementation of the local development program in Upper Egypt aims to promote sustainable local development and create job opportunities to reduce poverty in the governorates, by improving local infrastructure and improving the business environment.

El-Said indicated that the program is an example of coordination and integration between the ministries and state institutions, to raise the standard of living of citizens, provide decent services and implement projects in the governorates of Upper Egypt to provide more job opportunities there.

El-Said said that the local development program in Upper Egypt has started achieving its objectives, as well as achieving a positive response on the ground.

 

 

For his part, the Minister of Local Development said that the actual implementation of the local development program in Upper Egypt for about five years began at the beginning of 2018 under the guidance of H.E. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and with the full support of Dr. Mostafa, Prime Minister, and Dr. Hala El-Said.

The Minister of Local Development pointed out that the development of the local self-resources of the governorates is one of the most critical reforms that were implemented in the governorates of Sohag and Qena, where work was carried out on many integrated measures at the central and local levels, and an organized framework for institutional mechanisms was created to institutionalize the process of developing and developing local financial resources.

This is done to maximize the self-resources of the governorates and diversify the sources of local revenues. The Minister of Local Development also referred to the contribution to doubling the self-revenues of the governorates of Sohag and Qena during the fiscal year 2021/2022 compared to the fiscal year 2020/2021.

During the meeting, Dr. Hisham El-Helbawy, Director of the Local Development Program in Upper Egypt, indicated that the program has contributed over the past five years to serve approximately 5.6 million citizens in the governorates of Sohag and Qena, and to more than 30,000 business enterprises, providing about 369,000 direct and indirect job opportunities.

Al-Helbawy explained that so far, the implemented and ongoing program investments amounted to about 16.3 billion pounds, which were used to finance 4,453 projects, including 3,961 fully completed projects with investments of EGP 9.7 billion.

During the meeting, it was agreed to circulate and launch the developed local planning system during a governmental conference, to review all the structural reforms that were applied initially in the governorates of Sohag and Qena, and are being circulated in the rest of the governorates of the Republic.

It is worth noting that these reforms include the developed local development programs that were circulated by the Ministries of Planning and Local Development in 27 governorates. These programs include a program for local economic development and a program for urban development.

It also stressed the need to focus in the coming period on projects related to local economic development, such as markets and parking lots. This is in addition to accelerating plans to annex industrial zones and promoting investment opportunities in line with the directives of the political leadership.

During the meeting, emphasis was placed on transferring financial allocations for the governorates of Assiut and Minya from the loan. This was done to start several projects for local economic development, the development of economic blocs, and the improvement of services provided to citizens and businesses.