Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi attended on Sunday the opening session of Egypt Economic Conference 2022, which is organized by the government in the New Administrative Capital for three days.
Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli along with a number of statesmen, economists, thinkers and experts attended the opening session.
The conference aims to draw up an economic roadmap for Egypt within the coming period that would increase the resilience of national economy and its competitiveness.
A number of privileges will be announced for exporters and industrial sector at the end of the conference.
Egypt Economic Conference 2022 began by screening a documentary on the Egyptian economy and the big challenges it passed through over the past period.
The film shed light on Egypt’s wise leadership that enabled it to fight terrorism, restore security, build State institutions, set up the new Suez Canal, adopt a comprehensive reform plan, develop a transport mechanism and launch a national road project at a cost of 310 billion dollars.
The film showed the big achievements that were realized as regards developing power mechanism by 1.5 trillion pounds, setting up 17 industrial complexes and four integrated industrial cities, developing ports by 129 million pounds and setting up 30 new cities.
The film shed light on the radical restructure of economy after the liberalization of exchange price, fighting the black market to lure foreign investments and boosting the national industry.
In line with the economic reform plan, the film showed a number of social initiatives that were launched for the needy people, citing the launch of Decent Life initiative to improve the life of more than 60 million citizens, the “100 Healthy Lives” campaign and the launch of the first stage of the comprehensive Health Insurance System in six governorates at a cost of 23 billion pounds.
The documentary film also highlighted the decrease the budget deficit from 12.3% in 2016 to 8.2% in 2019 and inflation from 14.5% to 9.2% as well as the increase of cash reserves to 45.5 billion dollars and Gross Domestic Product to 6.6% in 2022.
It showed how the economic reform plan has increased the resilience of national economy to be able to face many changes starting from the 2015 Russian plane explosion, the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Despite these challenges, Egypt was able to secure strategic commodities, localize the industry and encourage young entrepreneurs.
Madbouli said 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.
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.
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.
He 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.
He referred to the grand economic conference for which late former president Mohamed Hosni Mubarak in 1982, saying it 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.
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.
