President El Sisi met the prime minister .. the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt .. the ministers of planning ..

Cairo – Eco – Fady Labib : President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met on Tuesday with the prime minister, the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, and the ministers of planning, monitoring and administrative reform; trade and industry and public business sector ...

The meeting reviewed the results of the state’s financial performance and the outcome of the government’s efforts to deepen local manufacturing and increase non-petroleum exports so as to contribute to the sustainability of foreign exchange sources.

President El Sisi stressed the importance of rationalizing the public expenditure and continuing financial reform efforts so as to improve the state’s financial capabilities and provide the necessary resources to ameliorate the basic services delivered to the citizens in all fields. This is in addition to supporting efforts to enhance the infrastructure, which is one of the bases for the development process and increasing production.

The President underlined the need for the government to take the necessary measures to establish a robust industrial base capable for fulfilling the needs of the local market and increase exports through value-added competitive products with a high percentage of local component, while identifying the targeted markets so as to contribute to supporting the Egyptian economy.

The meeting also reviewed the state's financial performance indicators until the end of the third-quarter of the fiscal year 2018/2019, which showed initial surplus, in addition to the significant improvement in controlling deficit rates. This resulted from the development of the economic activity and the government’s implementation of the economic and financial reform program. Revenues continued to increase, realizing initial annual growth of 20.1%; government investment witnessed unprecedented growth of about 50%, and the provisions for purchasing goods and services, especially for the sectors of education and health, increased by 48% during the same period. This reflects the interest to meet the citizens' basic needs and to increase expenditure on human development and on enhancing the infrastructure in various governorates across the country.

The meeting also reviewed the government's strategy for the development of exports, which is based on three basic pillars. The first is deepening local production by increasing the production capacity through establishing new industrial zones, applying a program to establish more than 4500 plants to be completed by the end of this year across the country and working on integrating value-added chains between local manufacturers and suppliers. This is in addition to providing financial facilitations to the manufacturers, encouraging international companies to enter the Egyptian market and providing trained labor. The second pillar includes overcoming obstacles that exporters face by restructuring export assistance programs, providing funding programs at a low interest and expanding the number of companies that benefit from these programs. This is in addition to creating an effective security system against the risks of exports and providing shipment and logistics. The third pillar includes targeting diverse export markets through products in which Egypt has competitive advantages, promoting Egyptian products abroad and facilitating shipping procedures.