After the approval of the Parliament’s Planning and Budget Committee on the draft law on state general planning Dr. Hala El-Said: The draft law aims to develop the planning process in Egypt following the latest international standards

H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, said that the approval of the Parliament’s Plan and Budget Committee during its meeting held on Wednesday, on the draft law on general planning for the state submitted by the government once and for all, is an important achievement in the process of legislative reform.
Dr. Hala El-Said indicated that the draft law aims to draw up an integrated system for balanced development planning, follow up its implementation, and evaluate its results at the national, regional, local, and sectoral levels.She added that the draft law seeks to define the roles of the planning authorities and partnership mechanisms between them to raise the standard of living, achieve social justice, and improve the efficiency of the use of all state resources and economic growth rates.The draft law also seeks to enhance competitiveness, improve the quality of life, the efficiency of providing services and facilities, and bridge development gaps, sectorally and geographically, as well as enhancing the participation of actors in the development process, and encouraging scientific research and innovation.El-Said added that the draft law also aims to shift towards decentralization and transfer of powers and responsibilities between different local levels, and to achieve the constitutional benefits related to local administration, in addition to focusing on follow-up and evaluation issues, which was not present in the previous law.

The Minister of Planning and Economic Development confirmed that the draft law enhances the ability of the ministry concerned with planning affairs to carry out the function of follow-up and evaluation of plans and projects at the central and local levels.The draft law also obligates ministries and planning authorities at local levels to submit project follow-up reports regularly to ensure enhanced efficiency and effectiveness. The draft law is also consistent with the articles of the constitution related to the local administration system and decentralization.El-Said explained that the draft law specified the detailed planning methodology for preparing plans at the national, regional, and local levels while defining the roles played by all relevant parties in a clear and disciplined manner.She further explained that the draft law gives the necessary flexibility to ministries, agencies, and local administration units for financial transfers between investment projects, to speed up their completion and increase the efficiency of public spending, following the controls in which the project was referred to the executive regulations. El-Said added that the most important characteristic of this draft law is that the process of preparing it came in coordination with all ministries and relevant authorities, foremost of which is the Ministry of Local Development, where a committee was formed to coordinate between the ministries of planning and local development to ensure consistency and coherence between the local administration law and the general planning law.