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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
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