Achieving sustainable development requires companies to achieve profits to make them able to activate sustainability and applying tools of social protection, said Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman.
He said there is no social protection except by funding comes from profits and growth. The World Bank determined about $4.3tn to achieve sustainable development, asserting that Egypt is part of the world and will participate in achieving sustainable development as well as funding it.
He said through the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) conference Sustainability Conference EGX 2015 that the state is required to speed up to achieve sustainability, in addition to training, developing, and qualifying the human element. It is a very important to achieve higher employment rates and development including all the part of society.
Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali said Egypt is still suffering low rates of integration of women in the political and economic life and that social responsibility and training are among the pillars of achieving sustainability. The present regime is serious in rectifying this problem with policies to allow women to have more presence and effect in the society.
Wali said the business environment in Egypt is in urgent need to commit to environmental restrictions and employ more women, especially since women’s rate in the official labour market is very low. Unemployment rates among women are four-folds the unemployment rates among men, which decreases the families’ interest in educating their girls.
Wali said Egypt’s national income is expected to increase in case women’s rate in the labour market increases and empowering them politically. She said empowering women in the economic life adds a lot of sustainability, politically and economically.
She also said the companies operating in Egypt should adhere to the environmental restrictions and to employ women, to raise awareness of these companies’ workers, supporting sustainability in reform and development.
According to Wali, the Ministry of Social Solidarity owns pension and social insurances funds and there are plans to increase the percentage of investments of these funds in EGX, where the returns on investing in EGX are still high.
