CAIRO, April 5, 2018 - The CEO of the Bechtel Group, Brendan Bechtel, congratulated on Thursday the Egyptian people on re-electing President Abdel Fattah El Sisi for a second term in office. This, he said, reinforced the economic reform programme adopted by the state. He was speaking during a meeting between Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and a Bechtel delegation.The Minister of Petroleum and Metallurgical Wealth, Tareq el-Mulla, attended the meeting. Mr Bechtel said that he was keen to visit Egypt on a regular basis to check on his company's activities and to discuss the prospects of expansion in the Egyptian market. He said that he was interested in his company's participation in the major projects that were being carried out in various sectors, as well as projects launched in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. Prime Minister Ismail welcomed Mr Bechtel, expressing the government's keenness to create an attractive environment for international companies to benefit from the investment opportunities available and to encourage them to contribute to the giant projects under way. Egypt, Ismail said, was looking forward to benefiting from the expertise of Bechtel in establishing and managing projects. He said 14 new cities were being established and there were projects in energy and infrastructure in all sectors. The Bechtel Corporation is a respected global engineering, construction, and project management company. In another development, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail held a meeting on Thursday with Minister of Planning, Follow-up and Administrative Reform Dr Hala el-Saeed, to discuss a number of the files the ministry is working on. During the meeting, Premier Ismail reviewed the steps taken with the aim of linking the ministry's medium-term Sustainable Development Plan (2018 / 2019-21/2022) to the Egypt Vision 2030, as well as the equal distribution of government investments among different governorates. The aim is to maximise the benefits out of these investment injected to developemnt projects being implemented nationwide. Minister el-Saeed, during the meeting, reviewed a number of indicators for the economic and social development plan for the fiscal year 2018/2019, noting that there was a remarkable increase in the volume of investments during this year, which will contribute to raising the level of services provided to citizens, especially in the field of infrastructure. There is additional support worth LE1.3 billion for the urgent plan of the governorates during the current fiscal year 2017/2018. The support is directed to implementing a number of development projects to be carried out nationwide. Later on Thursday, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail conferred with the Minister of Education, Tarek Shauoki to discuss the education file. The prime minister said that the education file was a top priority for the government. He called on all the ministries and bodies concerned to draw up a plan to develop pre-university education. Ismail said that education played a major role in training young people in the skills they needed for the labour market. Minister Shauoki reviewed the progress of preparations for the secondary school exams. He said that his ministry was following up the measures being taken to inaugurate Japanese schools in Egypt by September, in co-operation with the JICA, the World Bank and UNICEF.
