Maait among most effective figures in sustainable development in 2021

31 / 01 / 2022

By Marwa Zein

The Alam Almal Press, Printing and Publication foundation honored Egypt’s Finance Minister Mohamed Maait as one of the 2021 most effective figures in the fields of economy and sustainable development.

The honoring came in appreciation of his tangible efforts to serve his country in addition to his professional management of the state financial sector and promotion of the national economic infrastructure, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

Moreover, Maait managed to use modern technology in enhancing governance, boosting the efficiency of public expense and stepping up efforts to merge non-official economy into the official one.

During the honoring ceremony, Maait said this goes in line with the march of development adopted by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to build a new republic.

He attributed the success of the economic reform program to the strong political will and support for government policies, referring to international financing institutions’ praise of the economic reform.

This has enabled the Egyptian economy to flexibly deal with the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, he said, noting that the great Egyptian people are the real hero for their support of the wise political leadership and the economic reform program.

He said the Egyptian economy is in a good condition and became more capable of achieving progress in financial performance indices that surpassed expectations of financing institutions.

He added that the initial budget surplus stood at EGP 3.2 billion in the first half of the current fiscal year despite of an unprecedented rise in expense rate.

He referred to securing needed funds for mega national projects, including the presidential initiative of Decent Life, which created millions of jobs.

He said the Egyptian economy managed to prove to the world over the past five years that it is strong enough to confront international challenges, especially containing the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic.

He noted that the World Bank raised its expectations of the Egyptian economic growth rate to 5.5 percent in 2022, while the International Monetary Fund upped its expectations from 5.6 percent instead of 5.2 percent in 2022.

He noted that this came at a time when global economic growth rate is expected to stand at 5 percent.

Egypt is the sole oil-importing country to achieve positive progress despite the hiking petroleum prices and shipping costs.

He added that Egypt managed to decrease budget deficit by 50 percent in five years and this underscores the importance of the economic reform program.