- We dearly appreciate the attitude of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait and their material and moral support to Egypt.

The government is working as one team, the coordination and integration between financial and monetary policies.

-Continuation of the project of petroleum products cards to limit smuggling and diversion.

Minister of Finance,  Dr. Ahmed Galal confirmed that Egypt dearly appreciate the supporting attitude of  United Arab  Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to Egypt not only through financial aids but also the moral support provided by the three countries, disclosing the undertaken consultations with Emirates to determine the trajectory of the new aids package that will be given to Egypt by Emirates.

He said that the current government is a constitutional and transitional government and its mission is to address the current political, economic and social challenges and in the same time to initialize an atmosphere to the future governments, stressing that there is a conformity in the visions and aims between government members which are working as a one team to achieve this mission which also needs aids from friend countries to Egypt.

He added that the government is working currently to set an economic vision which focuses on two basic pillars, first is the fiscal discipline and the second is to stimulate economy, taking into account social justice as controling element when developing policies and programs to achieve these two pillars.

At the level of fiscal discipline, he said that the government is keen not to increase fiscal burdens on citizens and to maintain commodities subsidy, as for economy stimulation we concentrate to increase the overall demand by focusing on investments increase more than consumption, to contribute in economic situation improvement in the long term, pointing out that the government is interested not only to attract investments but also in their types and geographic distribution and how much they provide employment opportunities as we prefer intensive labor.

He added that among the procedures which had been undertaken by the government to stimulate economy, quickly  payment of the constructions companies arrears with government entities, due to the construction sector’s role in pushing economy and increasing growth rates.

He noted during his meeting with some  newspaper reporters and foreign press agencies, that there is a clear coherence in financial and monetary policies, both of them aim to expansion policy for an economic recovery whereas the central bank had decreased interest rates which support our efforts to stimulate economy, pointing out that there is no fear about inflationism stresses with the increase of economic growth rates, so as in the current time the economy grow up by rates less than its potential ability, then there is no stresses on prices movement.

In regard to social justice, the Minister confirmed that the government seeks to establish some of targeted programs for youth employment to limit unemployment rates that reach about 13% in Egyptian society and 25% among youth and women. As well as, the government is keen to support public spending on health and education programs which is not appropriate in relation to the importance we accord to human development, as it is one of the most important mechanisms to enter into labor market and to improve the opportunities of obtaining a good jobs.

He said that the government will not change supply commodities subsidy programs, continuing to apply unjustifiable  and inequitable energy subsidy rationalization programs which don’t achieve development objectives by concentration  on decreasing diversion and smuggling of supply commodities, and he noted that the relevant government plans have already begun since a short period through smart cards issuance to distribute solar, and benzene to limit smuggling.

He said that the government developed a cash subsidy program for poor segments to assure that they are not affected by any of the undertaken reform measures related to energy subsidy, noting that the program aims to determine the subsidy deserving categories and the specific criteria to join the program in terms of living standards and set up the mechanisms to measure.

The Minister confirmed the government commitment to complete the road map stages to establish real democratic institutions which firstly and finally biased in favor of the interests of the people, and he affirmed the importance of political and economic tracks reforms synchronism.

As for the possibility of resuming the discussions with the IMF, the Minister said  that the government is currently more interested in what can be done to stimulate economy and how to fill up saving gap to reach the growth rates that can absorb new entrants in labor market in addition to a part of the accumulated unemployment, pointing out that domestic saving rates reach about 15% of national income while we need an increase of 25% or 27% to achieve increased growth rates.

So, he said that the government - may –consider in the future an agreement with IMF in terms of credibility it shall be granted by such agreement to economic reform program. With  regard to financing gap which we suffered, it shall retreat due to the Arab aids,  reform programs and confidence recovery in economy, .

Responding to the impact of the relationship tension with EU and waiving with aids file, the Minister said that the EU is an important market to Egypt,  not only in terms of exchange trade but also in terms of investments and employment moving towards its markets from Egypt, noting that the government is keen to have good relationships with Europe and to improve the relationships with different countries all over the world,  but on the base of parity and mutual respect, as well as Egypt desires to have good relations with all countries of the world, as long as they are biased to the people’s will.

The Minister confirmed that the current stage is appropriate to pump more investments, while economy trends to grow and expand,  noting that  the Egyptian economy pillars are strong and has diversified growth sources.