Egypt’s House of Representatives began Saturday reviewing reports prepared by seven sub-committees of parliament about the government’s programme.
An official in parliament said the committees have sent their reports about the government’s programme to parliament’s secretary-general. Parliament is scheduled to review the reports from Sunday to Wednesday before members of parliament vote to renew confidence in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Sherif Ismail.
He added that the seven committees recommended granting trust to the government and urged to follow up on the progress of the programme every six months.
The general secretariat sent to members a schedule of the hearing session allocated to review the government’s programme until Wednesday.
The official expected that parliament will renew confidence in the government by the end of the week, following the completion of the discussion of the reports and a vote to be held on Wednesday.
He added that parliament asked the government to submit more details about its programme. However, this data has not yet been presented. It is expected to be provided this week.
MP Ashraf El-Araby, a member of the Planning and Budget Committee, said that the amendments suggested by the special committees that studied the government’s programme were straight-forward to allow for quick accordance.
El-Araby added that the majority of these recommendations fall under the parliament’s desire to participate and oversee the implementation, amendments that are not expected to be rejected by Prime Minister Ismail’s Cabinet.
MP Ayman Abou El-Ela noted that the Free Egyptians party is inclined to grant the Cabinet confidence, on the condition that the government clarifies the programme according to a timetable.
He added that the party believes that the goals set by the government fall within the expectations of the Egyptian people. “But we wait for more details on the process,” he noted.
The government aims to reach a growth rate between 5% and 6% by 2017/2018, as well as reducing unemployment to less than 9% by 2020, versus a current rate of 11.5%. The government also plans to reach a total deficit rate of 8% by 2019/2020.
Hussein Issa, a member of the Coalition In Support of Egypt who will head the Planning and Budget Committee in parliament, said that the report, which will be discussed over the next week, was prepared by 150 MPs.
The report includes a study of the government’s programme, in addition to the recommendations suggested by the seven committees tasked with studying the programme.
He added that the major political blocs in parliament intend to give confidence to the government.
He said that the committee in charge of studying the economic aspect of the programme stated that the government must reduce the budget deficit and public debt and must solve disputes with foreign investors.
