During the conference launching the national program for structural reforms

Dr. Mustafa Madbouly, Egypt’s Prime Minister launched on Tuesday at a press conference, the National Program for Structural Reforms; The second phase of the National Program for Economic and Social Reform, in the presence of Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, and the Ministers of Finance, Trade and Industry, Agriculture, Communications and Information Technology, and the Public Business Sector.During her speech, Dr. Hala El-Said said that the National Program for Structural Reforms represents the second phase of the 2016 Economic and Social Reform Program.She added that the program targets for the first time the real sector with radical and targeted structural reforms.
El-Said indicated that these reforms contribute to increasing the resilience of the Egyptian economy, raising its ability to absorb external and internal shocks, and transforming the Egyptian economy into a productive economy with competitive advantages. This supports the economy's ability to achieve balanced and sustainable growth.






El-Said pointed out that the main pillar of the reform program is based on increasing the relative weight of the manufacturing industries, agriculture, communications, and information technology sectors, pointing out that the three sectors ’contribution to the GDP in 19/2020 amounted to 26%, and it is intended that this percentage will reach what Between 30-35% on 23/2024. El-Said explained that the criteria for selecting promising sectors are the capacity for rapid growth, the relative weight of the sector, employment capacity, sectorial networks, international competitiveness, and the generation of added value.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.Dr. Hala El-Said reviewed the methodology of the structural reforms program, noting that the implementation action plan (November 2019-March 2021) was developed by following the participatory approach by involving the private sector, experts, the business community, and the concerned ministries.
Dr. Hala 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.
Dr. Hala El-Said drew attention to the strategic objectives of the industrial sector, which are to increase the sector’s contribution to the GDP to reach 15% in 2024 and to increase 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. Increase employment rates in small and medium enterprises to 61.5% in 2024.El-Said added that among the strategic goals of the sector: reaching high integration in value chains and an increase in the share of industrial exports with a high technological component in the total industrial exports at a rate of not less than 20% annually, and an increase in the share of industrial exports with a medium technological component in the total industrial exports at a rate of not less than 10% per year, with an increase in the competitiveness of the sector's exports Industrial by increasing exports of industrial goods as a component of total exports at an annual rate of not less than 15%.


On the objectives of the agricultural sector; El-Said explained that it includes increasing the productivity of the sector and improving its competitiveness, achieving food and water security, with increasing agricultural exports, creating new job opportunities, and increasing the incomes of small farmers, in addition to enforcing contractual agriculture agreements, establishing logistic center complexes, maximizing the monetary value per cubic meter, and restructuring cooperatives. El-Said asserted that the quantitative targets of the agricultural sector are to support small farmers through the integration of efforts and coherence and the expansion of initiatives to support them and enhance their marketing capacity.El-Said referred to the project to strengthen the marketing capabilities of small farmers, which aims to improve the standard of living and contribute to reducing poverty rates in rural areas for the target groups in the project's work areas (7 governorates). The project targets smallholders (less than 3 acres), and those who do not own land. The female breadwinners, the unemployed youth, and the owners of small and medium enterprisesEl-Said said that the 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. Moreover, the strategic goals include increasing exports of crops and agro-industries and doubling the share of the agricultural sector in exports to reach 25% in 2024, while ensuring the achievement and sustainability of food and water security, and improving Egypt's ranking in the Global Food Security Index from 60 to 50 out of 113 countries.
El-Said reviewed the strategic objectives of the telecommunications and information technology sector, noting that it is to increase the sector’s contribution to the GDP to 5% in 2024 while maintaining high growth rates for the sector in the range of 16%, raising the sector’s productivity and its ability to create jobs and increase the number of trainees in the programs offered by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and its affiliates in the various fields of technology, with a growth rate of 20-25% annually, and the provision of 120-140,000 new job opportunities by 2024.







El-Said added that the strategic goals of the telecommunications sector include developing the sector's infrastructure, increasing the number of start-ups affiliated with it from 10% to 15%, improving Egypt's ranking according to the Oxford Insights index, ten centers from 55 to 45, in addition to increasing the share of exports of electronic products and technological devices as well as doubling of exports of the communications and information technology sector (service + commodity exports) to reach $ 8 billion in 2024.

El-Said reviewed the policies of the first pillar of the program, which is the development of the technical education and vocational training system, and the establishment of an institutional framework to activate the role of the private sector in the field of education and training, and to achieve compatibility between supply and demand sides in the labor market while supporting the empowerment of women, youth and people with skills. The policies of the second pillar include creating a supportive environment for competition, facilitating and developing trade movement, removing restrictions, raising transport efficiency, and providing multimodal transport while supporting the transition to a green economy.

El-Said added that the policies of the third pillar include accelerating the pace of digital transformation, continuing administrative and institutional reform, empowering local administration units, and strengthening their capacity, along with the governance of the performance of state-owned companies.

 The policies of the fourth pillar also include accelerating the pace of financial inclusion, increasing the financing opportunities available to private sector companies, revitalizing the money market, and preparing a unified national strategy for financial inclusion, and the policies of the fifth pillar include raising the efficiency of health services and expanding their scope, activating the Egyptian family development strategy and raise the efficiency of educational systems and complete efforts to increase the coverage of social protection umbrella.