The Egyptian Minister of Finance El-Morsi El-Sayed Hegazy announced that the state's budget deficit is expected to reach EGP 188 billion in FY 2012/2013. On the sidelines of the Second Investment Conference on Investment in Public-Private Partnerships, Hegazy said he will meet today with the Ministry's budget sector to discuss the budget items that will be referred afterwards to the Shura Council by the beginning of next April. He revealed that the government plans to ration subsidies to save EGP 30 billion as well as restructure the state's administrative system which has 6.8 million government employees, which is a large number as compared to Turkey's administrative system, for example, which has 800,000 government employees. "Therefore, it will irrational to talk about appointing the temporary employees. The state's administrative system shall be restructured and the private sector shall play a greater role in providing new job opportunities," he concluded.
