Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announces that Egypt has adopted a five-pillar plan to cope with the current global economic crisis resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Invest-Gate reports.

Announcing the government’s plan during a press conference Sunday, Madbouly said the plan focuses on supporting localization efforts and promoting local products, increasing the participation of the private sector in the country’s assets and decreasing budget deficit and public debt, following directions of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

The plan also includes developing the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) and maintaining social protection programs for low-income citizens,

Madbouly says that the plan includes strengthening the private sector role, localizing strategic industries, activating the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) and providing goods, noting that foreign direct investments have declined due to the global economic crisis because of the Russia-Ukraine war and that public debt worldwide is rising by 351%.

“The government seeks to raise the participation of the private sector in the coming years by 65% of the total implemented investments and it will launch a package of various decisions to involve the private sector and solve its problems,” Madbouly adds.

Moreover, there are sectors from which the state will depart in three years and others the state will continue with, but with a decrease in its percentage and there are other sectors that the state must continue with because they are pivotal and pertain to the state.

The government will also establish major holding companies in the stock market and focus on the maritime transport and hotel sectors and the state is preparing a plan to offer many public companies on the EGX during the next stage.

The country’s seven largest ports will be merged into one company, with the aim of being offered on the bourse, Madbouly noted, adding that the same measure will be applied to governmental hotels.

Madbouly also reveals that the government will announce the State Ownership Policy Document before the end of May. The step is meant to empower the private sector and regulate the state’s presence in economic activity, the prime minister said.

Further, the country aims at establishing a partnership between the public and private sectors in several major national projects in the fields of energy and utilities and offer new projects for foreign direct investment in the fields of communications, information technology and both new and renewable energy.

The government will declare a four-year program with a total value of EGP 40 bn for the private sector partnership, he notes.

Concerning the budget, Egypt also intends to lower their total debt – currently at 86% – to 75% of gross domestic product within the coming four years as well as decreasing the budget deficit from 6.2 percent to five percent, according to Madbouly.

Likewise, Egypt is one of the candidate countries to be a very large center for the production of future energy from green hydrogen and green ammonia.