Hala El-Said, Egypt's Minister of Planning and Economic Development, met with Sue Barrett, Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for Infrastructure in Turkey, Middle East, and Africa, on Wednesday to discuss the progress of the bank's sovereign portfolio and various areas of cooperation between the two parties. The meeting was also attended by Ahmed Kamali, Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Khalid Hamza, Director for the EBRD's office in Egypt, and representatives from both sides. El-Said emphasized the importance of supporting and enhancing cooperation with the EBRD and discussed the projects to which the bank contributes in Egypt. She also discussed the labour market policy unit, which analyzes both the supply and demand sides of the labour market, the specializations required in the market, the skills needed in different sectors, and improving the quality of labour to be more competitive, either inside Egypt or exported abroad. Kamali spoke about efforts to localize the Sustainable Development Goals, emphasizing that Egypt attaches great importance to the localization process at the governorate level. He pointed out the most prominent efforts, including the financial equation developed by the Ministry of Planning, which allocates resources to different governorates in a fair and objective manner, in order to improve the efficiency of public investment management and enhance decentralization, while taking into account the characteristics and circumstances of each governorate. He also discussed reports on the localization of Sustainable Development Goals at the level of the 27 governorates, launched by the Ministry of Planning in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund, which is the first of its kind in Egypt. He added that work is currently underway to increase the number of Sustainable Development Goals indicators covered by those reports. Regarding the investment plan for the current fiscal year, Kamali explained that it focuses on two main elements: human development and stimulating the private sector. He added that the Ministry of Planning took into account the state's royal document when preparing the plan, in addition to relying on the integrated electronic system for preparing and monitoring the investment plan as a key factor in distributing investments to various entities and monitoring projects, along with the geographical distribution of projects.
