The Ministry of Planning is launching the "Inspire Fund", with seed money worth EGP 250m, according to, Minister of Planning Ashraf El-Araby. The announcement came on the sidelines of the first annual CSR Forum in Egypt that kicked off Sunday. "The purpose of the fund is to support unusual and creative ideas for solving community problems, and financing until now is purely governmental," El-Araby said. "The aforementioned amount is just the beginning, whereby other ministries can participate in the fund, and we're urging the private sector to form a parallel fund," he further noted. Thinking outside of the box is very important now, and is targeted by the Egyptian government as a whole to be able to finance developmental projects in the country, El-Araby said. Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali said that the government is interested in caring for workers in private companies and ensuring their access to financial and social rights, in addition to increasing the training and qualifying programmes on an ongoing basis. Wali added that government should support increasing the private sector contributions to stimulate the national economy and increase the size of its contributions to the labour market. In addition, it should make gradual changes in the culture of employees by creating a feeling of belonging and protection. Wali stressed on tight cooperation between the public and private sectors and civil society through a flexible legislation that protects all the parties and allows space for creativity. She added that a mature civil society and private sector will lead to successful experiences in corporate social responsibility (CSR), and there are global experiences in this area that achieved great success in serving the community. Ahmed El- Sheikh, General Manager of PepsiCo for North Africa, called for activating the role of the private sector in the community, as the private sector is considered the backbone of the national economy. El- Sheikh added that CSR has recently become one of the most vital and essential areas among all companies, as the government and the private sector pay attention to this field to create a positive change that both individuals and institutions feel. "The private sector should have earnings to implement CSR activities, so the companies can work on solving community problems not creating them," added El-Sheikh. "The government has to work on creating motivation for the private sector to work in the area of CSR and increase their community activities". Ayman Ismael, Chairman and CEO of DMG, stressed on the important role the private sector should play in developing the community. He highlighted that, in countries around the world, approximately 75% of financial and human resources are available in the private sector, making the role of the sector crucial in improving the state of the community.
