The targeted spending on health in the fiscal year (FY) 2016/2017 budget is around 3% of the Gross Domestic Profit (GDP), while the government aims to spend 6% of the GDP on education, the Minister of Finance Hany Dimian said Thursday in an unprecedented public announcement by the government that outlined the state budget proposal. The current budget spending is divided into EGP 42.4bn for health, compared to EGP 33.5bn in the previous budget, and EGP 94.4bn for education, compared to the previous EGP 83.6bn. Furthermore, spending on scientific research is proposed to be 1% of GDP. The government is targeting a 4.5% to 5% economic growth in the proposed budget for FY 2015/2016 and aims to reach a 6%-7% growth by FY 2018/2019. The proposed budget also seeks to decrease the unemployment rate by 1% to reach 11.9%, and to slide to 10% by FY 2018/2019. Dimian said that "starting next year, the proposed draft will be publicly announced in December". "This will give the citizen a chance to comment on it and give his opinion," the Finance Minister added, noting that the move is a step by the government to connect and improve communication with the Egyptian citizen. The delay in parliament elections might affect the level of transparency, but the government is trying to take steps to ensure that this doesn't happen, Dimian said. "In previous years, spending on petroleum subsidies was more than the spending on education and health combined," he added, highlighting how cuts in subsidies are necessary.
