Mohamed Maait, Minister of Finance, stressed that the Egyptian government continues to promote development investments, which contributes to improving the standard of living of citizens and improving the services provided to them. This would happen by allowing the private sector to inject more investments to increase its contribution to 50% of Egypt’s GDP within three years from now, he added.
Maait pointed out that the public-private partnership strategy includes new incentives that would reflect positively on the business environment in Egypt.
The minister explained that the government is confidently walking down the path of digital transformation, to modernize and automate tax and custom systems to facilitate procedures, strengthen governance, and collect the dues of the state’s public treasury.
This came during a meeting held between the Minister of Finance with Gareth Bayley, the British ambassador in Cairo, and some representatives of English companies.
Maait stressed the Egyptian government’s keenness on completing structural reforms, to preserve the gains of the economic reform program, which provided more flexibility to face internal and external challenges, while keeping the state’s safe economic path, especially with the Ukrainian crisis in the aftermath of the Coronavirus pandemic.
He explained that it is targeted during the new fiscal year 2022/2023 to work on achieving ambitious goals in a highly turbulent global economic scene. The total targeted revenues in the new budget draft amount to EGP 1.5trn, while the total expected expenditures are estimated to be EGP 2.071trn, and EGP 356bn have been allocated for social support and protection, in addition to EGP 400bn for wages, and EGP 376bn for public investments, with a growth rate of 9.6% to improve services provided to citizens and create more job opportunities, especially for young people. Additionally, environmentally friendly projects increased to 50%. “We aim to record a first surplus of 1.5%, and reduce the deficit. The overall deficit reached 6.1% of GDP, compared to a total deficit of 12.5% at the end of June 2016,” he said.
He also indicated that the government is keen on completing the implementation of the comprehensive health insurance system, despite the global economic situation, to provide comprehensive and integrated health care for all members of the Egyptian family within 10 years instead of 15.
British Ambassador in Cairo Gareth Bayley said that Egypt has become a major destination for British investments in the Middle East, expressing his appreciation for the reform and structural efforts implemented by the Egyptian state despite the enormous challenges that cast a shadow on the economies of the entire world.
The British ambassador praised the activity of the Minister of Finance during his participation in the “BEBA” trade mission in London last week, in which he reviewed the most important developments of economic reform and its impact on financial conditions in light of the global crisis. He noted that he is keen on inviting many British companies to invest in Egypt, to take advantage of the promising opportunities and an attractive business climate.
The meeting was attended from the Egyptian side by Ahmed Abdel Razek, Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, Sherif Hazem, Advisor to the Minister of Finance for Engineering Affairs, Hossam Khedr, Head of the Public Treasury and Mint Authority, and Doaa Hamdy, Head of the Foreign Relations Unit.
