Egypt's Minister of Planning Hala El-Saeed said on Wednesday the financial year 2020/2021 draft budget targets increasing public investments to 280.7 billion Egyptian pounds ($17.8 billion) , up from 211 billion pounds during the financial year 2019/2020, an increase of 33 percent, according to Ahram Online. The budget also aims to increase the public treasury's financed investment to 230 billion pounds, up from 140 billion pounds, a rise of 64 percent, to stimulate both Egypt's economic activity and its efforts to contain COVID-19 outbreak. Announcing the financial year 2020/2021 draft budget's investment targets, El-Saeed revealed that it aims to increase investments in healthcare sector by 69 percent, rising to 15.3 billion pounds, to cover inclusive healthcare coverage initiatives, including the inclusive health insurance system and the improvement of healthcare services. For the education sector, El-Saeed clarified that the financial year 2020/2021 draft budget targets increasing higher education investments by 104 percent to reach 17.8 billion pounds, while it targets increasing pre-university education investments by 35 percent to reach 16.5 billion pounds. For the transport sector, El-Saeed explained that the financial year 2020/2021 draft budget targets 36 billion pounds in government investment in the sector with a growth rate of 84 percent for a number of projects, especially roads and bridges under the national road network and the completion of the third and fourth phases of the Cairo metro. She also added that it targets increasing investments in the housing sector by 75 percent to reach 40 billion pounds. For and the telecommunication and information technology sector, financial year 2020/2021 focuses on increasing the sector investment for the first time by 300 percent, to reach 10 billion pounds to improve financial year the sector's infrastructure and to pursue governmental services mechanization. Financial year 2020/2021 draft budget also targets further investments in the water resources and irrigation sector by 11 percent, reaching 8.1 billion pounds, to cover a number of initiatives to ensure water security. El-Saeed illustrated that the Hayah Kareema initiative will also be covered in the financial year 2020/2021 draft budget through expanding the social protection umbrella to focus on meeting citizens' needs in the most vulnerable villages, and providing job opportunities. El-Saeed said the financial year 2020/2021 mainly targets improving living standards, especially in education, healthcare and transport in light of Egypt's strategic vision 2030.
