Egyptian Minister of Finance Mohamed Maeet called on Friday on Arab countries to adopt a risk management strategy against potential economic shocks around the world.
Addressing participants in the meeting of Arab financial bodies and institutions in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian finance minister said the Council of Arab Finance Ministers and the Arab Monetary Fund are badly in need of adopting this hedging plan to cushion Arab states and peoples against these shocks.
Unity among Arab states, he said, and coordinating the visions and policies of Arab states is an issue of extreme importance that can guarantee the ability of these states to deal flexibly with global economic problems.
”Arab states can do this in a way that contributes to absorbing the negative effects of global crises and alleviating their severity on Arab economies,” Minister Maeet said.
He added that Egypt is keen on strengthening Arab solidarity and deepening unity among Arab states.
Egypt, he said, aspires to achieve the desired integration between brothers who are linked by a solid history, and who are united by a common destiny and one future.
”This will lead to maximising the optimal utilisation of Arab resources, and achieving financial, economic and development goals in a sustainable manner,” he added.
He underlined the importance of exchanging experiences between Arab states in the field of financial policies to support Arab recovery from the repercussions of Covid-19.
The pandemic, he said, caused a severe disruption in supply chains, and a sharp rise in the prices of goods and services.
”It caused an inflationary wave unprecedented in the past four decades,” the minister said.
He added that this Covid-19-induced inflationary wave was made worse by the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.
Minister Maeet briefed meeting participants about Egypt’s experience in dealing with the repercussions of the pandemic.
He said the Egyptian government handled these repercussions in a proactive, flexible and balanced manner, as it took the initiative to allocate LE100 billion within a financial package that supported economic activity and the most affected groups.
This approach, he said, took into account the preservation of the gains of the economic reform programme that was implemented in the country over the past few years.
”We were keen to prevent large and costly economic imbalances from occurring,” Minister Maeet said.
He added that the same approach aimed to help the Egyptian economy take off once more soon after problems caused by the pandemic come to an end.
”We also eye a raise of our capabilities in healthcare and medicine in the coming years,” Minister Maeet said.
He added that Egypt also works to increase the competitiveness of its industrial and agricultural sectors and its exports.
”In the post-Covid-19 period, we will focus on profitable sectors of the economy, including information technology and activities related to green recovery,” the minister said.
