Minister of Planning, Follow-up and Administrative Reform Hala al-Saeed said that the biggest challenge facing Egypt is the high rate of population growth and the imbalance between this rate and the volume of resources. The Minister added that the imbalance between population growth and resources makes it difficult to address the problems of unemployment, illiteracy, food sufficiency, and to cope with disparities in development indicators between different governorates. The minister explained that the reform program includes the implementation of a comprehensive plan for administrative reform, which includes legislative reform, institutional development, and the creation of new human resources departments, training and capacity building at various administrative levels. She said that the Egyptian economy achieved the highest annual growth rate in a decade of 5.3% during the fiscal year 2017-2018, in addition to the decline in the unemployment rate to 9.9% compared to 13.2% in 2013-2014. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has maintained a positive view of the Egyptian economy with a forecast of 5.3% growth in 2018 and 5.5% in 2019 despite the difficulties facing the global economy.

Source: Egypt Independent December 01, 2018 12:22 UTC