Egypt is preparing to offer some public companies to the private sector in fiscal year (FY) 2022/23, Planning Minister Hala El-Said told Daily News Egypt.
Last week, Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said that a number of public companies will be listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), including 10 public sector companies and two military-owned companies.
This came during the International Conference on Egypt’s Alternative Finance Opportunities towards Sustainable Financing for Development, on Monday.
During her speech, El-Said affirmed the state’s keenness on the partnership approach with all development partners from the private sector, civil society, and international and regional organizations.
El-Said added that the state of uncertainty that the world is currently going through following the pandemic, and the negative impacts of the geopolitical crisis in Ukraine, dictate the imperative of dealing with the main challenge which is the financing of the Sustainable Development Goals.
She pointed to the huge financing gap for the sustainable development goals in developing countries, which ranged from $3.3trn to $7trn annually before the pandemic. She added the gap widened by an additional $2.5trn in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
El-Said added that the emerging economies, including Egypt, have disproportionately great challenges to control the conditions of financial spending and at the same time provide the necessary financing to implement public investments in line with the growing population needs.
She stressed that the Egyptian state considers the issue of financing for development as one of the most important determinants of the ability of countries to move forward in implementing sustainable development programmes and projects.
The conference was held in cooperation between the Ministries of Planning and Finance as well as the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The conference was attended by Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait, and Mahmoud Mohieldin, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations on Financing for Sustainable Development and the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, via video conference.
Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Cairo, Nicole Champagne, also attended the event.
Regarding Egypt’s hosting of Conference of the Parties (COP 27) in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, she indicated that the “National Climate Change Strategy in Egypt 2050, which was launched last week, serves as a road map to achieve the “third sub-goal of the updated Egypt Vision 2030.
She explained that the strategy has set the cost of mitigation programmes at about $211bn, while the total cost of adaptation programmes will reach $113bn by 2050.
El-Said indicated that the cost of green projects in the FY2022/23 is targeted to reach EGP 336bn in many sectors such as transportation, electricity, irrigation, and housing.
“Accordingly, green public investments will reach 40% of the total public investments, with a target of 50%,” she stressed.
