Egyptian Finance Minister, Dr. Samir Radwan, asserted there would be no change in the Egyptian economic drive and no going back on free market policies and economic reformation. The private sector will continue to play a role in leading development, and there are policies seeking to attract foreign investments to the Egyptian market, while focussing on achieving social justice as the most important axis of the new general state budget bill.

The Finance Minister expressed these views in his meeting with a delegation of American companies investing in Egypt in several fields including medicine, cars, banks, alimentary goods and communications.

There are, the Minister added, a number of newly introduced programs in the new budget bill of 2011/2012 which target social justice, such as the introduction of a national housing project, setting a training program linked with actual employment, and the start of a reformation of the wage/salary structure through a total restructuring, rather than simply setting a minimum wage/salary level.

Concerning the mechanisms of augmenting the general revenues of the state, Dr. Radwan revealed that the budget bill introduced a new tax bracket of 25% in the structure of income taxes to readjust the escalating tax system—an effort to achieve social justice by charging the rich to spend on the poor.

Taxes on cigarettes are increased by 10%, bringing the rate to 50%, which is in compliance with Egypt’s international commitments. The revenues resulting for taxing cigarettes are used worldwide to spend on health insurance and hospitals.

Expected budget deficit will be around 11% in the next fiscal year, but the Ministry of Finance has set a plan to decrease this ratio gradually over the coming few years, according to Dr. Radwan.

The Minister also emphasised the efforts exerted by the government to solve problems and remove snags that may stand in the way of investments in the country, seeking an increase in foreign and Arab investments.

Egypt is currently enjoying increasing stability and security, and the basic infrastructure of the country is intact and has not been influenced by the events of the 25^th Jan. Revolution.

On the other hand, the American delegation of the investing companies expressed optimism, seeing that tourism will recover soon and will achieve even higher rates. The delegation hopes that Egypt will benefit from the positive reception of the Revolution by the world. The Egyptians can exploit this in promoting touristic campaigns before the start of the new tourist season in Europe and the USA next October.