Wrap Up: Meetings and activities of H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development during the government official visit to France

Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, accompanied Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, the Prime Minister, on his visit and members of the Egyptian government to the French capital, Paris, from October 23 to 27, with intense activity since her arrival until the end of the visit.


Dr. Hala El-Said 's activities during the visit included participation in the round table held with representatives of the private sector on the topic of "Infrastructure for Mega Projects".

During her speech, El-Said emphasized that investment in infrastructure is one of the main pillars of the economic and social reform program in Egypt, adding that investment on a large scale in infrastructure projects contributes to stimulating market demand for other economic sectors, which encourages investment in them.

 El-Said confirmed that this is what happened in Egypt, where large numbers of workers were employed in government infrastructure projects, which contributed to generating income for them.

These projects boosted production and investment in many sectors and contributed to advancing the development process.

El-Said indicated that infrastructure investments increased by EGP 2.3 trillion, equivalent to $143 billion in infrastructure over the past seven years, an increase of 340 percent since the 2015/2016 fiscal year.
During the visit, Dr. Hala El-Said chaired the bilateral session with the directors of the World Economic Forum (WEF), this session was entitled "Women's Economic Empowerment".
During the session, El-Said referred to the main challenge for gender equality and women's participation in the workforce.
El-Said stressed that one of the pillars of the "National Plan for the Development of the Egyptian Family" is the economic empowerment of women, which can be monitored through the rate of their participation in the labor market, noting the Egyptian state's measures to protect women in the face of the Covid-19 challenge.

 These measures included granting working women exceptional leave for pregnant women or employees who take care of children 12 years of age or younger. El-Said referred to the continuation of the "Executive Leadership for Women" training program offered by the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (NIGSD) - the training arm of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development - despite the pandemic conditions.“A sustainable innovation lab was launched, which specifically targets the economic empowerment of women and people with special needs, in 2021, in addition to developing a joint action plan between the Ministry of Interior, the National Council for Women, and the National Council for Motherhood and Childhood to address domestic violence against women and children during the pandemic,” El-Said said. Awareness campaigns targeting women were also launched in 922 villages across Egypt to increase their awareness of potential transmission channels of the Coronavirus and the necessary precautionary measures, El-Said addedDuring the activities of the Egyptian government's visit to France, El-Said chaired the round table held under the title: "Economic growth, productivity, and business climate." She explained that the Egyptian government aims to achieve a GDP growth rate of 7% in the 2023-2024 fiscal year and that the investment-to-GDP ratio should not be less than 20%.
The government is also targeting to increase the GDP contribution of the three leading sectors in the 2023/24 fiscal year to 30% - 35%.
El-Said added that the Egyptian government seeks to increase the share of the industrial sector by 15% by increasing the industrial clusters by about 15 to 20%, in addition to enhancing industrial exports as one of the components of total exports with an annual growth rate of at least 15%.
 The Egyptian government also aims to increase agricultural activity by 30% and increase the share of the sector’s exports from 17% in 2020 to 34% in 2024, in addition to doubling ICT exports (services + commodity exports) from $4 billion to $8 billion in 2024, This helps in addressing the structural deficit in the balance of payments.
El-Said added that Egypt has taken extensive measures to improve the business climate in general; this included introducing legislative reforms to major laws affecting the business environment as well as simplifying important aspects of tax policy and administration.

Consequently, Egypt’s ranking in the Doing Business 2020 index issued by the World Bank rose six places to 114 out of 190 countries.

 During the index ranking period, Egypt implemented four business reforms which is the second-highest number of reforms undertaken among MENA countries.