Page 5 - Issue-En-44

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Vol.1

Issue 44

June 2022 minister after the revolution. We had a Egypt had never failed to pay off its debts,
great relationship and worked a lot but I had discovered that Egypt would wait
together even though he was only prime before harvest season to buy its wheat, and
minister for a month. The ministry of during that time, the price of wheat would
finance is considered the backbone of the be at its peak. Therefore, I thought of
national economy; hence, it’s the backbone implementing an idea suggested by famous
of the country if managed effectively. This radio host Baba Sharo’s son, which was
ministry is Egypt’s history ever since its bulk buying and storing wheat, but there
establishment during Mohamed Ali were no silos for storage then.
Pasha’s reign. I discovered that it had Furthermore, I had found that Egypt would
many other functions aside from managing purchase wheat from local farmers at a
the general state budget, one of which is modest cost, and here, I issued a
human development. ministerial decree that the price at which
I utilized the experience I gained working the state purchased wheat from local
in the United Nations as it exposed me to farmers should be closer to international
the experiences of around 67 countries in prices. That season, the wheat supply had
economic development. In each of these dramatically increased. We also bought oil
countries, I did a development experiment; and received oil gifts from the Gulf States.
for example, in Palestine, I established a We paid off our debts and started working

social fund. Likewise, in several Arab, on increasing and strengthening
African, and Asian countries. I studied the investments rather than aid. My experience
Chinese experience and the experience of in the Ministry of Finance was rich in
Singapore and Malaysia and met Mahir making public policies despite its brevity
Muhammad. and difficulty.
When I was appointed as the minister of
finance, I planned to apply these Question: These days, the talk of the hour
experiences. I worked around 16 hours is the repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine
daily and found many untapped potentials war. How would you assess the
in the Ministry of Finance. Together, we performance of Egypt’s Economy in terms
tried solving many problems like the of challenges and opportunities?
allocations dedicated to wheat, oil, and After a long period of silence, I published
debt servicing. an article in Al-Shorouk newspaper where
I mentioned that we are skilled at

diagnosing problems, but we need to
prescribe solutions to these problems
instead of suffering in silence and
drowning in frustration. We are facing
many challenges, most notably that our
current economic growth rate is considered
low compared to the population growth
rate. Creating employment opportunities
4 for the growing population requires
increasing economic growth. The current
growth rate is 3.5% on average, but we
need it to be at least 7%, which would
require investments ranging between