Egypt is determined to improve the lives of 58 million citizens within the next three years, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has announced, asserting that the government will complete the “Decent Life” initiative in only three years, instead of 10 years.
Al-Sisi witnessed on Tuesday the launch of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report (HDR) in Egypt for 2021, in cooperation with the Ministry of Planning and Development. The ceremony, held in the New Administrative Capital, was also attended by Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said.
During his speech, Al-Sisi said that HDR 2021 is a testimony to the Egyptian people’s patience and strength in the face of challenges.
He affirmed that the Egyptian people are the real heroes in the construction and development process during the past seven years.
He continued that the Egyptian government’s development operations targeted all sectors. He noted that Egypt has faced several challenges over the past eight years, mainly terrorism, explaining that Egypt adopted two parallel paths in facing terrorism; human development and security operations.
Al-Sisi indicated that the state’s performance in the development process was characterized by strength, speed, comprehensiveness, and depth, as Egypt considered the war against terrorism as a construction and development battle.
He noted that Egypt does not have refugee camps, but rather refugees in Egypt are treated like citizens, asserting that the government provides all services to refugees of all nationalities. Egypt hosts about 5-6 million refugees, as big as the population of two countries, Al-Sisi said.
Moreover, Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly asserted the Egyptian state has a development plan that runs until 2030 in order to recover high growth rates. Egypt witnessed a growth rate of 7.7% in the last quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2020/21, he noted.
“We continue to confront main challenges facing the Egyptian people, including human development in light of the increasing population growth,” Madbouly said. Reducing the population growth rate in Egypt during the coming 10-15 years will make a big difference in the development process.
He pointed to Egypt’s recent mega projects, including green recovery initiative, digital transformation, and mechanization of public services.
Madbouly noted that the President directed the government to study all the recommendations in the Human Development Report 2021.
He explained that during the past 10 years, Egypt witnessed two revolutions, which imposed many security and political challenges, and very large repercussions on the Egyptian economy, in addition to the structural problems that the national economy has been suffering from for decades, stressing that Egypt adopted an economic reform programme aimed primarily at reforming these imbalances, seeking to provide new job opportunities for young people.
He asserted that the reform plan also aims to improve the standard of living of the individual, as well as upgrading the services provided to them, and achieving social justice and sustainable development within the framework of Egypt’s Vision 2030, in addition to trying to attract more national, regional and international investments to support the Egyptian economy.
The Prime Minister stressed that the economic reform program had achieved positive numbers reflecting the success of the Egyptian state during a very short period of time in improving unemployment rates, inflation rates, increasing gross domestic product, and increasing the value of international reserves and reducing the budget deficit.
He asserted that Egypt is among the few countries in the world that succeeded in maintaining a positive growth rate, as it achieved, in FY 2020/21, a growth rate of 3.3%, with a gross domestic product exceeding $408bn.
“We are targeting 7% growth over the next four years,” Madbouly confirmed.
He added that the Egyptian state had recently announced the second part of the economic reform programme, which is related to structural reforms in the Egyptian economy, pushing all sectors to increase their effectiveness.
