Egypt is experiencing an unprecedented development experience in its history: Planning Minister

Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, said that the country has achieved good indicators with the success of the first phase of the national program for economic and social reform.El-Said pointed to achieving high growth rates before exposure to the Corona pandemic, in addition to low levels of deficit, stressing that Egypt is experiencing an unprecedented development experience in its history.



El-Said said that regarding the second phase of the national program for economic and social reform represented in structural reforms; it targets the real sector with radical and targeted structural reforms that contribute to increasing the resilience of the Egyptian economy and raising its ability to absorb external and internal shocks.




The second phase of the National Program for Economic and Social Reform seeks to transform the Egyptian economy into a productive economy with competitive advantages. This supports the economy’s ability to achieve balanced and sustainable growth in the manufacturing industries, agriculture, telecommunications, and information technology sectors.




The Minister of Planning and Economic Development explained that each ministry has a plan for economic reform, noting the importance of the presence of the private sector as a partner.



El-Said also referred to the efforts made by the state in the issue of social protection. This is evidenced by the success achieved by the “A Decent Life” presidential initiative and by the United Nations’ inclusion of the initiative among international best practices, as it is specific, verifiable, and measurable, has a timeframe, and converges with all the UN sustainable development goals.



Dr. Hala El-Said emphasized that the most important strategic goals of the agricultural sector are to increase the sector's contribution to the GDP to reach 12% in 2024, increase agricultural productivity by about 30%, create new job opportunities and increase the incomes of small farmers from 430-530 thousand new job opportunities by 2024.


The strategic objectives of the industrial sector also include increasing the contribution to the GDP to reach 15% in 2024, increasing the percentage of workers in the sector to 18-20% in the same year with the provision of 400-460,000 new jobs annually until 2024, and increasing employment rates in small and medium enterprises to 61.5% in 2024.




While the communications and information technology sector aims to increase the contribution to the GDP to 5% in 2024 while maintaining high growth rates for the sector in the range of 16% and providing 120-140,000 new job opportunities by 2024.



On the pillars supporting structural reforms; El-Said indicated that it consists in raising the efficiency of the labor market, developing the system of technical education and vocational training, improving the business environment, and developing the role of the private sector, raising the efficiency of public institutions through digital transformation and governance, in addition to enhancing financial inclusion and access to finance, and developing human capital.





El-Said emphasized that the National Program for Structural Reforms targets 6 reform pillars, 32 policies and goals, and 88 priority procedural and legislative structural reforms out of a total of 310, with the sustainable development goals being localized at the level of all 27 governorates.