CAIRO: Egypt is moving steady towards achieving the United Nations' eight Millennium Development Goals, says the latest report about Egypt's progress in the world wide campaign. All speakers at the conference applauded Egypt for their progress with the eight goals saying that many problems were on their way to being solved. "Egypt should be proud of what it has achieved so far because despite all the recent problems with the economy and the rise in prices, Egypt still managed to continue fulfilling the goals, said Fayza Abul Naga, minister of State for International Cooperation, in at the report's launch yesterday at the National Institute for Planning. The report identifies poverty as the main problem in Egypt and North Africa saying that there has been some improvement and that Egypt is on its way to cutting extreme poverty by half by 2015. "Egypt has made great progress in trying to eradicate extreme poverty. However, if we are going to solve this issue then we need to focus on all the areas where people are most in need, Abul Naga said. The speakers noted that there is still more to be done if Egypt wants to achieve its goals by the 2015 deadline. "People in Egypt are still below the poverty line but they are becoming less poor and those who were once seriously under the poverty line are getting closer to it, said Hoda Rashad, a researcher from the American University in Cairo. James Rawley, UN Resident Coordinator, said, "Poverty should be addressed in a comprehensive way because poverty goes further than income; people need education and better health care. Attention should be placed in providing a strategy to meet the goals. The press conference was set up to talk about the findings of the report about Egypt and North Africa. The study is the fifth of its kind since world leaders announced the MDGs in 2000. "Never has there been a report so detailed and dedicated. It is a complete plan of what has been done and what should be done in the next few years to achieve the goals, said Osman Osman, minister of State for Economic Development. "The report and the meeting of world leaders in 2000 are not just about coming up with ideas and views to help improve our problems but it is a commitment, for the first time ever, from all nations to try and solve many predominant issues in today's world, he added. In spite of the recent global economic problems and the rise in prices, the speakers were optimistic that they could still reach the goals in time. "The next phase is likely to be more challenging now that the world is facing an economic slow down which has been quite evident in the past few days and all state holders need to renew their commitment to the goals. But progress has been made and although it may be difficult, it is not impossible to achieve what we want, Rowley noted. "I agree with my fellow speakers, there is no goal that cannot be achieved if we all pull together, Abul Naga added.
