Enhancing the role of the private sector is one of NPSR’s main pillars: Minister of Planning

Recently, Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, participated in the activities of the Egypt Economic Summit in its third edition, held under the slogan "Community development and investment opportunities after the Corona crisis" under the auspices of Egypt’s Cabinet. This year's conference deals with the topic of "Global Inflation and the role of the Public and Private Sectors in confronting it." 
During her speech, Dr. Hala El-Said referred to the establishment of The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) as one of the mechanisms to enhance partnership with the private sector. TSFE was established in 2018, within the framework of the Egyptian state's plan to achieve sustainable development (Egypt Vision 2030), and the required increase in the volume of investments.On the other hand, El-Said added that since its inception, the Fund has developed a plan to re-exploit the assets transferred to it to maximize its value and return from it, the first of which is the Tahrir Complex building because of its historical importance and a distinctive location.El-Said stressed that supporting the business environment and enhancing the role of the private sector is one of the main pillars of the National Program for Structural Reforms (NPSR) in Egypt, which comes as a second phase and a continuation of the successful implementation of the national program for economic and social reform, which the state launched in November 2016.El-Said explained that the program includes six pillars of work, the main one dealing with restructuring the Egyptian economy to diversify the production structure by focusing on the sectors of the real economy.



Within this framework, three main productive sectors were identified as a priority for the structural reforms program, and these sectors were selected according to some considerations, the most important of which are: the ability to grow rapidly, create high added value - provide productive and decent job opportunities - and have strong interlinkages with the rest of the sectors. These sectors are represented in: the agricultural sector - the industrial sector - the communications and information technology sector, in parallel with supporting the service sectors that complement and support the productive sectors, the most important of which are: the logistics sector, the construction sector, and the tourism sector.El-Said added that the move by focusing on these sectors aims to increase the contribution of the productive sectors to the structure of the Egyptian economy, in addition to bringing about a change in the structure of the sectors to increase their degree of competitiveness and improving the business environment.El-Said added that in addition to the main axis of the program, five other supportive pillars intertwine and overlap vertically and horizontally, including improving the business environment and enhancing the role of the private sector, by facilitating and developing trade movement, creating a supportive environment for competition, organizing private sector partnership, supporting the transformation of the green economy and maintaining employment. On the other hand, El-Said added that the state is working to enhance the participation of the private sector and diversify sources of financing for development efforts by launching the IPO program in Egypt to list some state-owned companies in the stock exchange to revitalize the capital markets by offering stakes in government-owned companies to citizens and local and international investors and diversifying the ownership base.In the context of talking about the development of the Egyptian capital market, El-Said explained that the state has taken many decisions and measures to encourage investment in the stock market, including supporting the stock market by about EGP 20 billion with the emergence of the Covid-19 crisis and allowing the coding of young people in the age groups between 16 to 21 years, to allow them to start investing in securities listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange.Dr. Hala El-Said concluded her speech by referring to the increase in Egypt's ability to attract foreign direct investment; As Egypt has in 2019 a third of the stock of foreign direct investment in North Africa (according to the OECD report, Investment Policies Aspirations in the Middle East and North Africa in March 2021).