Egypt’s economic conference to take place on Oct. 23-25: PM

Under the directives of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a new economic conference will take place on October 23-25, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly announced on Wednesday.

A website for the conference will be launched by next week to receive suggestions and proposals, a statement by the Egyptian Cabinet read.

Earlier this month, President Sisi has called for organising an economic conference to discuss the present conditions and outlook in order to boost all sectors of the domestic economy.

The visions of experts and representatives of the business community are to be taken during the conference, added Madbouly.

On Tuesday, the Egyptian president said the conference would be a great opportunity to present all the obstacles facing investors, stressing Egypt’s keen to remove all impediments to industrial development. He said all obstacles to investment will be removed within a month or two.

“We will present the problems that exist and that meet the investor. It is not a defect in the government or the state that we will present. We will confront and solve them so that no problems will hinder investment,” al-Sisi stated on Tuesday.

The president further said the state “is targeting $100 billion in exports, and this figure is not great for a country the size of Egypt with 104 million people,” stressing that Egyptian labour wages are not high compared to other countries.

The government has been working on providing the private sector a greater role in the country’s economic activities. In June, it launched the State Ownership Policy Document that charts a roadmap for expanding the private sector’s role in a number of economic activities in the country.

Through the policy document, Egypt seeks to raise the private sector’s share in economic activities to 65 percent over three years, up from the current 30 percent.