More private sector participation is inevitable to complete the economic reforms implemented by the Egyptian government, said a senior official at local firm Carbon Holdings on Thursday. Egypt has undergone tough economic reforms tied to a three-year, $12 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund agreed in late 2016, which has been disbursed in full. The reforms included devaluing the currency by about half, cutting energy subsidies and introducing a value-added tax. "A private sector participation is certain to complete what the Egyptian government has begun," Karim Helal, renowned finance and banking expert and Managing Director for Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at Carbon Holdings, during a financial seminar in London. The Public sector and the Egyptian armed forces are not competing with the private sector but they had to fill gaps by delivering in no time large, complicated national projects, Helal said. After enacting painful macroeconomic reforms backed by the IMF, the government is clearing a bigger room for the private sector participation in ongoing and upcoming giant national infrastructure projects, Helal explained. The seminar is part of a door-knock mission to the UK, which is organised by the British Egyptian Business Association (BEBA) to discuss bolstering bilateral cooperation between the two countries during a three-day visit from November 27 to 29.
