Employment, Wages and Prices Top Government's Priorities

New initiative To Build Youth Forum to Discuss General Budget Draft for the Next Fiscal Year

New Plan to Finance Small and Medium Enterprises

The issues of employment, higher wages and price levels and increasing productivity top the priorities of the current government, said Dr. Samir Radwan, the Minister of Finance. The Ministry of Finance is currently studying, in cooperation with the Ministry of Manpower and the Central Agency for Organization and Administration (CAOA), a national employment program, the minister pointed out, during his meeting today with groups of "January 25" youths, in which he discussed the current situation and the youth vision to solve these problems.

The minister announced a new initiative to create a Ministry of Finance forum, involving young people to discuss the terms of the General Budget draft for the next fiscal year 2011/2012, in order to encourage the participatory approach to designing financial policies and public expenditure, which began with the Citizen Budget initiative launched by the Ministry of Finance in December 2010.

The government is keen to involve the public in financial and economic decision-making processes and in determining spending priorities in the fields of education, health, subsidy and public investment programs, infrastructure projects and other projects, he added.

As the problems facing the Egyptian society result mainly from the high rate of unemployment and low wage levels, solutions to these problems require unconventional approaches, Dr. Radwan indicated.

Government Employment is limited and does not meet the community aspirations to achieve real development, he asserted, citing the experience of Turkey, which has 600,000 employees in various state bodies, compared to 6 million in Egypt.

Youths should have more oriented towards self-employment, and new ideas and initiatives, the minister stressed.

In response to complaints about the difficult access to funds from the Social Fund for Development, the minister pointed out that the Ministry of Finance is studying a new plan to finance small and medium enterprises.

(Source: Ministry of Finance)