Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development and Governor of Egypt at the Islamic Development Bank Group, participated in the Bank’s Governors’ Dialogue entitled “Exemplary Partnership for Sustainable and Flexible Development: The Islamic Development Bank Group and the Arab Republic of Egypt”, as part of the activities of the annual meetings of the Bank Group that are held during the period From May 10-13, in Jeddah; Under the slogan: “Establishing partnerships to prevent crises.”
During the meeting, Al-Said reviewed the Egyptian economic and social reform plan to face global challenges such as the Corona pandemic and the recent geopolitical crises, stressing that the world has been affected by the repercussions of Corona and then the current conflicts due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, supply chain disruptions and increased inflation rates, which affects global growth rates, explaining that These challenges affect developing countries more, pointing out that Egypt is well aware that the prevailing situation requires revitalizing efforts to address bottlenecks and structural issues in the economy, stressing that crises always generate opportunities for countries to reshape a new and better reality for future generations.
The Minister of Planning indicated that the Egyptian government has taken short-term policies and urgent measures to mitigate the impact of crises, pointing to raising the minimum wage, raising the minimum tax exemption and continuing to provide financial support to targeted families through ration cards, and supporting the difference in international prices for some goods and services. In addition to approving exceptional allowances in wages and pensions, explaining that the government has implemented medium-term plans to enhance the resilience of the economy, noting the launch of the National Program for Structural Reforms in 2021, which focuses on raising the productive and competitive capacity of the economy and enhancing its flexibility, as the program addresses the root causes of imbalances in the real sector. By creating decent job opportunities, diversifying and developing production patterns, improving the business climate, localizing the industry, and enhancing the competitiveness of Egyptian exports.
-During the Corona crisis, providing a stimulus package (2% of GDP) to mitigate the economic impact of the epidemic, referring to the central bank’s decision to take protective measures to provide liquidity and contain inflation, to approve a package of financial and social protection measures, and to allocate about 2.7 billion pounds to include 450,000 new families have benefited from the “Takaful and Karama” cash transfer program, pointing to the decent life initiative, which aims to improve the rate of availability of basic services (sanitation, education, health, youth, sports, natural gas, and fiber-optic networks) in the villages of the first phase of 30 % to 90% %.
-Regarding benefiting from the partnership between Egypt and the Bank Group, El-Said explained that the constructive cooperation between Egypt and the Islamic Development Bank has created continuous developing relations between the two parties in various fields of development, and cooperation between Egypt and all member institutions of the Islamic Development Bank Group covers various fields.
Al-Said indicated that the Egyptian government put forward a state ownership policy document that confirms the state’s keenness to make way for the private sector to participate effectively, pointing to the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, which is the investment arm of the state and the ideal investment partner for the private sector, explaining that there are many mechanisms for partnership with the fund through Its sub-funds are in the fields of infrastructure, utilities, tourism, health care, medicine, financial services, and so on, pointing out that the fund is actively participating in renewable energy projects.
