Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Development holds a workshop to discuss the principles of preparing a proposed plan for the next fiscal year
13 December 2021
The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development held recently a workshop to discuss the principles of preparing a proposed plan for the next fiscal year 2022/2023, the plan is entitled “Approaches and tools developed for local planning”.
The discussion of the plan took place in the presence of Dr. Ahmed Kamali, Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Heba Moghaieb, Head of Regional Planning Sector, with the participation of the Deputy Governors and the Secretaries-General at the level of the governorates nationwide.
Dr. Ahmed Kamali, Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development, said that the workshop includes a review of the thinking on the investment plan and the services provided by the ministry to facilitate the process of preparing the plan and following up on projects, adding that there is very great momentum for projects.
Kamali highlighted the “Decent Life Initiative”, which represents the largest development project globally.
Kamali affirmed the Egyptian government's belief that development targets the governorates, and aims to achieve development in all of Egypt's governorates.
Kamali referred to the ministry's keenness to use all available tools to help the governorates prepare the plan and follow up in a good way in the interest of the citizen and improve the services provided to him.
Kamali touched on the report on the settlement of the sustainable development goals, pointing to the launch of sustainable development reports at the level of the 27 governorates.
He referred to the increase in the adoption of the local administration of the governorates.
Kamali talked about the integrated system for preparing and following up the plan, explaining that the most important part of the system is the follow-up part, adding that the plan contributed a lot to provide a nearly complete database available on all projects, where that base can be used to follow up on projects.
Dr. Ahmed Kamali also touched on the localization of the sustainable development goals, explaining that the idea of localizing the sustainable development goals began about 3 years ago, as it started with 4 governorates, to be generalized at the governorate level due to the importance of localization so that it is not limited to 4 governorates only.
Kamali went on to talk about the development of planning curricula and tools, noting that the local administration’s investments have increased by 410% since 2015, referring to the financing equation and that the increase in governorate investments is not random, as development indicators are put into a financing equation to result in the required investments for each governorate. He explained that the governorates that benefited the most are the governorates that have development gaps.
Kamali announced that the governorates competitiveness index will be launched next year, which is a special indicator for each governorate to calculate the competitiveness of each governorate, which will create positive competition between all governorates to clarify the status of each governorate in terms of competitiveness.
Kamali stressed that the per capita share of investments has witnessed a great leap during the past three years, especially in Upper Egypt, unlike what the governorates are witnessing as part of the Decent Life Initiative.
He added that training has been held for all support agencies to prepare development feasibility studies that take into account the three dimensions of sustainable development.
On her part, Dr. Heba Moghaieb, Head of Regional Planning Sector at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, said that through the practice that was carried out in the past two years.
“Through the applications and updates that take place in policies and systems, some principles should be agreed upon in preparing the plan,” she said.
She noted that these principles include a commitment to the approved plan programs.
Moghaieb continued talking about the principles of the plan for the fiscal year 2022/2023, taking into account the inclusion of the needs of citizens and MPs in the plan proposal, estimating the cost elements accurately, and adhering to the models for preparing feasibility studies, with the inclusion of road lighting projects that are being paved, in addition to the inclusion of all target projects. It was self-financed within the preparation of the plan proposal.
Moghaieb added that it comes within the principles of the plan; Giving priority to the capitals of the centers in which the villages of the Decent Life Initiative are located.
At the end of the workshop, Brigadier General Mohamed Abdel Azim, director of the spatial information infrastructure project for digital transformation projects in the ministry, reviewed the spatial-information infrastructure integration project (for the Egyptian planning system), in cooperation with the Military Survey Department.