CAIRO – 25 October 2021: Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli hailed distinguished relations between Egypt and France that led to increasing trade exchange to hit 3 billion dollars in 2020, up by 20 percent compared with 2019.
“France has been and will always be an important partner to Egypt,” he said.
During his meeting with representatives of 90 French companies at the headquarters of the French Business Council “MEDEF”, Madbouli said Egypt is one of the important recipients of France's foreign investments as more than 165 French companies are operating in Egypt with total investments of 5 billion euros, he said, adding that these investments contribute to providing 38,000 jobs.
Madbouli further hailed Egypt’s presidential nation-wide initiative ‘Haya Karima’ as “the first Egyptian national developmental project that serves 58 million citizens with an estimated budget of 40 billion euros”
He indicated that human development and social protection have always been at the heart of the Egyptian reform program, noting that during the implementation, noting that during the implementation of the economic reform program, Egypt was committed to alleviating the low-income and needy groups to reduce the negative impacts.
“We need to enhance trade and investment cooperation with France, especially as Egypt possesses massive economic potentials and has many promising investment opportunities,” Madbouli said in light of measures taken to mitigate the negative repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic and stimulate national economy.
He also reviewed the economic accomplishments Egypt succeeded in achieving over the past period, saying Egypt is now carrying out an ambitious economic development plan as it launched Egypt Vision 2030 in February of 2016.
He went on explaining that Egypt successfully finalized the first stage of economic reforms that were carried out in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2016 and adopted a comprehensive and lasting program to achieve economic growth based on amending financial and monetary policies.
He referred to the IMF's praising of the economic performance in Egypt, saying budget deficit declined from 12% in 2013 to 7.3% in 2020, inflation rate went down from 11 to 5.7% while unemployment rate decreased from 12.4 to 7.3% by the end of the second quarter of 2021.
He made clear that human development and social protection were considered while carrying out economic reforms in Egypt to ease the impact of these reforms on limited income people.
In this regard, the first National Strategy for Human Rights was launched in line with Egypt Vision 2030 and a presidential initiative entitled Decent Life was put into force to develop rural areas at a cost of 40 billion euros, the Egyptian premier said.
Madbouli said Egypt targets achieving a 5.4 percent economic growth in 2021/2022 fiscal year to rise to 6 to 7 percent within the next three years.
He said Egypt is keen on drawing on from French expertise, especially in the domains of auto industry, communications and information technology, ready-to-wear clothes, textiles, small and medium-sized enterprises, transport, energy and water.
The available potentials of the national economy increase the chance that Egypt can achieve economic leaps, especially as it is the gateway to African, Arab and European markets.
With the near inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Egyptian Museum, Madbouli hoped that more French tourists would come to the country to visit the museum as well as the other tourist attractions.
Mon, Oct. 25, 2021
