The Egyptian government had to pump public investments to balance out the private sector’s thin contribution to the local economy, reduce unemployment, and avoid recession, according to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.
Madbouly met on Monday with representatives of EFG Hermes Holding and 28 financial and investment institutions from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and South Africa, to discuss cooperation opportunities and attracting foreign direct investments.
Before adopting the economic reform programme, Madbouly said, the private sector was not willing to pump the necessary investments to absorb new workers entering the labour force, with about one million jobs needed annually, Madbouly said.
The meeting was also attended by Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said, and CEO of The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) Ayman Soliman.
Madbouly reviewed the economic situation in Egypt during the last period, in light of the economic reforms, noting that Egypt successfully completed the first phase of the reform programme in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He pointed out that this reform programme helped Egypt overcome the negative effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, earning praise from many international institutions, as Egypt was one of the very few countries that recorded positive growth despite the pandemic.
He added that the government is currently implementing the second phase of the economic reform programme, which is based on a set of radical structural reforms to support strong and sustainable economic growth, focusing on a number of priority sectors, namely agriculture, industry, communications, and information technology.
Madbouly expressed his keenness to sit down with major international financial and investment institutions which operate in the local market to inform them of the latest developments in the Egyptian economy.
Moreover, Minister Hala El-Said said that the Egyptian government invested heavily in the infrastructure sector in recent years. In the coming period, the government will work on paving the way for the private sector to take the initiative and contribute to the country’s economic growth.
El-Said pointed out that the investment climate in Egypt improved significantly, climbing six places on the Doing Business Index for 2020 by the World Bank, to rank 114th out of 190 countries.
She added that the government paid greater attention to the infrastructure modernization to stimulate the private sector activity, revealing that about EGP 1.7trn of public investment was injected in the infrastructure sector during the past seven years.
