Egypt’s Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli stressed that the Egyptian Economic Conference 2022 came out of the political leadership’s understanding of the importance of laying down an economic roadmap with the participation of all parties concerned, including experts, businessmen and political parties.
He made the remarks on Sunday while addressing the opening session of the conference which is attended by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.
He said the conference comes at a time of an international crisis that was not witnessed since the WWII.
All developed and emerging economies are struggling to survive and ensure stability, he said, adding that Egypt is not isolated from the world.
Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli said the economic roadmap due to be drawn up will tackle means of recovery from the short-term international crisis with solutions for some chronic problems.
The premier said some economic opinions in the local and international media are not based on good knowledge of the real economic situation, highlighting the importance of building future solutions on correct information.
Madbouli highlighted the importance of analyzing the outcome of two key conferences; namely the grand economic conference in 1982 and the future Egyptian conference in 2015.
He expounded that these two events were held in exceptional circumstances in Egypt; the first was held after the 1973 war when Egypt was loaded with problems, while the second ensued major crises in 2011 and 2013, topped by an unprecedented terrorism wave in Egypt.
The premier reviewed the shortage of butane gas cylinders and main supply commodities during that period.
Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli said the grand economic conference for which late former president Mohamed Hosni Mubarak focused on the economic problems and means of rectifying the economic course in addition to laying down a development strategy.
This conference unraveled 10 major problems in Egypt, topped by population explosion, fluctuating exchange rate, budget deficit, foreign debts and deficit in trade balance.
Madbouli said the 1982 conference highlighted the importance of changing the consumption trend as consumption rate tripled at the annual level.
He added that inflation rate between 1980-1982 reached 20 percent.
He reviewed the role of the public and private sectors during this period, noting that 372 companies were suffering from many problems and there was a need to enhance the role of the private sector in the Egyptian economy.
Madbouli also reviewed the indicators for governments’ response to economic imbalance from 1982 to 2011.
He said the volume of state investments in 2011 reached dlrs 40 billion.
Reviewing the link between debt and gross domestic product (over 30 years from 1981 to 2011), Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli said the debt volume exceeded 100 percent of the GDP within 19 years.
