Egypt outlined a EGP 327bn public investment plan focused on health, education, scientific research, and other services for the fiscal year 2025/2026, the planning minister told parliament on Tuesday. Minister of Planning and Economic Development and International Cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat, presented the sectoral targets of the development plan during a plenary session of the House of Representatives, chaired by Parliament Speaker Hanafi Gebali. The plan designates approximately EGP 86bn in public investments for the health sector and EGP 63.4bn for educational services, Al-Mashat detailed. Around EGP 178bn is allocated for other social services. The state's general budget is set to contribute nearly EGP 219bn towards financing these initiatives, covering roughly two-thirds of the total investments planned for these three sectors, the minister added. Al-Mashat stated the plan prioritises strengthening human development by allocating a substantial portion of total investments towards improving and expanding health and educational services across the country. "The fundamental objective of Egypt's development efforts is investing in its citizens," she said, adding that the approach aims to narrow qualitative and geographical disparities and continuously improve Egypt's ranking on the global Human Development Index. The minister noted Egypt's score on the index rose from 0.706 in 2015 to an estimated 0.75 in FY 2023/2024. Education Sector Investments In pre-university education, the plan includes establishing 17,300 new classrooms, developing 1,851 existing schools, and undertaking rehabilitation, replacement, or renewal for 12,500 classrooms. The strategy focuses on upgrading current schools and adding classrooms to reduce density and expand access, particularly in high-need areas, with investments targeting basic education schools in governorates including Cairo, Alexandria, Giza, Beheira, and Fayoum. The plan also emphasises qualifying schools for quality accreditation, fulfilling a commitment to appoint 150,000 teachers, strengthening literacy programmes, especially where illiteracy rates are high, and expanding nursery school availability. For technical education, the plan targets establishing 536 new classrooms, replacing or renewing approximately 902 classrooms, and developing and rehabilitating 126 existing schools. It also includes implementing competency-based training and establishing 10 applied technology schools. Al-Mashat noted a focus on encouraging private sector partnerships for these schools to meet labour market demands. Accelerating digital transformation to support education and continuing curriculum development to improve outcomes and foster innovation are also priorities. Regarding university and higher education, the FY 2025/2026 plan involves completing educational buildings and university residential projects across 29 public universities. It includes equipping workshops and laboratories in 12 technological universities and finalising the implementation of electronic examinations. These efforts aim to enhance higher education quality and international competitiveness. Investment incentives will encourage private sector establishment of more private universities, alongside projects enabling public universities to gain quality accreditation and improve global rankings. Health Service Enhancements The nearly EGP 86bn allocated to health services for FY 2025/2026 includes an increase of over 87% in funding from the public treasury, Al-Mashat said. Key projects include completing work on 47 health and university hospitals (41 Ministry of Health, 6 university), which have surpassed 70% completion. These comprise 15 curative care hospitals, 10 under Phase One of the Comprehensive Health Insurance scheme, 4 under Phase Two (in Matrouh, Minya, North Sinai), 3 managed by the Secretariat of Specialized Medical Centers, and 3 psychiatric hospitals. Implementation has also been finalised for 17 Egyptian Family Development Centres, 9 primary healthcare units, and a plasma collection centre in Sohag governorate. Development and equipping work continues for 75 curative care hospitals, 50 hospitals under the Secretariat of Specialized Medical Centers, 27 psychiatric facilities, and 11 plasma centres. Work will commence on 10 standardised model hospitals, including two in Minya and Kafr El-Sheikh. Additionally, 172 projects are underway to develop and automate university hospitals and upgrade medical centres and units, such as the central laboratories building in Badr City and the Nasser Institute Medical City. The plan aims to enhance healthcare accessibility by increasing the ratio of physicians per 10,000 people and the availability of hospital beds, with special attention to primary healthcare and preventive medicine. The rollout of the National Programme for Comprehensive Health Insurance will continue across remaining governorates. Sports and Youth Facilities The plan includes expanding youth facilities by developing 156 youth centres, and establishing or developing 10 youth cities, 6 youth camps, 4 youth development centres, 3 civic education centres, 3 scouting facilities, 5 youth forums, and 2 youth hostels. Sports infrastructure expansion involves constructing or developing 28 playgrounds, upgrading 8 stadiums, developing 53 sports clubs (including 9 for people with special needs), 4 sports cities, 18 swimming pools, 2 sports medicine hospitals, and 9 sports medicine units. National Family Development Project Al-Mashat addressed the government's focus on continuing the National Project for Egyptian Family Development, which uses an integrated approach covering economic empowerment for women, service delivery, cultural and educational programmes, digital transformation, monitoring, evaluation, and legislative reforms to manage population dynamics. She explained that the project's first phase (2021-2024) benefited approximately 28 million citizens by October 2024, leading to improvements in demographic indicators. The population growth rate decreased from 1.9% in 2018 to 1.4% in 2024, and annual births fell from 2.5 million to 1.97 million over the same period. The first quarter of 2025 saw a population growth rate of 1.34%, down from 1.4% in Q1 2024. The Ministry is currently developing an executive plan for the project's second phase, setting measurable targets aligned with national strategies like Egypt Vision 2030, the government's action programme, presidential initiatives, development partnerships, and the Sustainable Development Goals, Al-Mashat confirmed.
