Sunday 22 Dec
Minister of Planning and Economic Development and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, Dr. Hala El-Said, participated in a session entitled "Macroeconomic Trends in 2024" during the symposium held by the London Stock Exchange Group.
The session revolved around the future and challenges of
financial markets and wealth in Egypt, and global and local economic
indicators.
CEO of the fund, Ayman Soliman, attended the session moderated
by Yasmine Saleh, Editor-in-Chief of Zawya Arabic website, according to a
statement by the Ministry of Planning.
She explained that the Egyptian government took advantage of
the COVID-19 pandemic to launch community dialogues with development partners
to develop a real structural reform plan. This involved studying all different
sectors, with a focus on the three economy sectors: the industry, agriculture,
and telecommunications and information technology sectors.
These sectors make the Egyptian economy productive, and hence
possible to increase the share of exports to become more competitive, which
contributes to strengthening the state's sustainable resources from real sector
exports.
She clarified that this is the main axis in the structural
reform plan to increase the weight of the three basic sectors, as their
relative weight is about 25% to reach 35% of the size of growth, therefore the
economy becomes more capable.
She explained that due to the efforts made during the past
period, the relative weight was reached from 25% to 30%, and the target is to
reach 35% by the end of 2026, which represents the medium-term period in the
reform plan.
El-Said said that the second axis of the structural
reform plan, is strengthening the role of the private sector as a key partner
in development. The target is more than two billion pounds in total investments
for the current year within the indicators of the total size of the economy in
the Egyptian economy, as it started three years ago with a 27% private sector
investment rate to rise to 32%, and the target is to reach 36% by the end of
the current year, then 48% in the next fiscal year 2024/2025.
She shed light on the State Ownership Document,
which defines the state's exit from certain sectors with the launch of a number
of companies that the state is offering for exit, in addition to the establishment
of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt as an important investment arm to help enter and
encourage the private sector through the fund's study of different fields and
the conversion of different projects into an investment product and then
launching it to the private sector.
She pointed to the organization of a special committee for
competitive neutrality to regulate the relationship between the state and the
private sector and determine the level of competitiveness between them.
She also addressed the third axis of the structural reform
plan, which is labour market efficiency. She explained that Egypt is a country
with a high population and a high proportion of youth, which confirms the
importance of the labour market, especially the dynamic and developed one.
The minister stressed the state's current keenness to focus on the
outputs of the educational process and announced the launch of the first labour
market policy system next September. It works to identify the skills and
specializations needed by the labour market, in addition to increasing the
proportion of technical and vocational education, as well as increasing the
proportion of interdisciplinary studies, with working on developing the
technical education system and linking it to partnership with the private
sector.
She explained the role of the private sector in determining
the required skills and competencies in the specializations and thus linking
all technological and technical schools to the required specializations in
light of advanced technology and changing future jobs, which requires the
existence of an advanced educational system that focuses on technology.
