Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said has held a high-level video meeting to review the “A Decent Life” initiative.
The meeting’s main goal was to discuss a strategy for economic empowerment in the villages and centres to be developed in the next phase of the initiative.
Also present at the meeting were: Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad; Chairperson of the National Council for Women (NCW) Maya Morsi; Tarek Fayed, Chairperson of the Board of Directors at Banque du Caire; Alaa Farouk, President of the Agricultural Bank of Egypt (ABE); Osama Saleh, president of AYADY; and Amr Abu Al-Azm, Chairperson of AlTamweely Microfinance.
During the meeting, the experiences of the entities and institutions participating in the meeting in financing micro-projects that are most useful for the Egyptian countryside were discussed and reviewed.
The meeting also discussed how to benefit from these experiences in formulating mechanisms for financing small and micro projects, as part of the initiative.
Nada Masoud, Economic Advisor to the Minister of Planning and Economic Development, gave a detailed presentation on the proposed strategy for economic empowerment in the villages under the initiative.
The strategy is based on development indicators and surveys carried out by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), with the presentation including the most important sectors targeted for investment.
El-Said stressed the importance of the economic empowerment component, and the provision of decent work opportunities within the components of the “A Decent Life” presidential initiative.
The minister also asserted the need to develop mechanisms to finance appropriate projects for each village, carried out by partner ministries, and taking into account the competitive advantage in each rural community.
It will also take into account the benefits from past experiences, and coordinate according to what is happening on the ground of initiatives.
El-Said directed for studies into the possibility of implementing a pilot phase for some small and micro enterprises in two centres and many villages during the remaining months of the current fiscal year.
These studies will be an evaluation that will be used with the launch of the new fiscal year and its expansion in all “A Decent Life” villages and centres.
