CAIRO: In response to Egypt’s mounting bread crisis, more than 1,500 outlets selling government subsidized bread were opened in the poorest neighborhoods of Cairo in just three weeks, said Social Solidarity Minister Aly El-Moselhi.
Moselhi was speaking during the opening session of a conference titled “Egyptian Society’s Responsibility towards the Limited Income Bracket.
Organized by the Canada Egypt Business Council (CEBC) and the Social Fund for Development (SFD), the event was held on Monday at the Semiramis Intercontinental hotel.
When one of the attendees asked Moselhi where she should go to find government subsidized bread, Moselhi laughingly replied, “Just give me your address and I will send the bread to your door.
In the year to March, the price of both cereals and bread rose by 48.1 percent, the director of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, General Abu Bakr Al-Gendi, told AFP.
According to Moselhi, “The bread and wheat problem is on top of ministry’s agenda, adding that it will take time to solve the problem. “We are starting with the poorest districts and will work gradually until we cover all districts in Egypt.
On a different note, Moselhi went on to talk about the importance of human resource training. While there are numerous training programs offered by the government in all fields, they must be “developed and strengthened to cater to market demands.
“We must provide more services for limited income citizens and must have a vision of the job market’s demands.
Meanwhile, Mounir Thabet, the UNDP’s country director, who also spoke during the first session, said that it is “important to get small investors to participate in the mission of providing more services to lower income citizens.
At the end of the session, Moselhi said, “It is important that we all understand the importance of work. Employees have to invest in themselves and in the quality of their work.
The conference was divided into four sessions, each with a prominent keynote speaker, including Hani Seif El-Nasr, managing director of the Social Fund for Development, Mahmoud Abdel Latif, chairman and CEO of the Bank of Alexandria and Mohamed Ozalp, vice chairman of Banque Misr.
The last session, which focused on “the government’s plans to improve the living standards of lower income brackets, was headed by Osman Mohamed Osman, minister of economic development; Mostafa El-Said, head of the People’s Assembly’s economic committee and Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, secretary general of Al-Wafd political party.
