CAIRO, April 18 (MENA) - The African Development Bank (AfDB) plans to channel dlrs 300 million in investments into Egypt’s private sector in 2025, with a focus on financing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), said Minister of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation Rania el Mashat.

Speaking at the third BRIDGE meeting, Mashat said that Egypt’s economic transformation places the private sector at the core of sustainable and high-quality growth.

She added that under the government’s 2024–2027 action plan, structural reforms are being implemented to unlock the potential of the private sector.

The reforms focuses on simplifying regulations, boosting investor confidence, and implementing the State Ownership Policy Document, which aims to clarify the state's economic role and expand opportunities for private sector growth, she added.

The minister highlighted her ministry’s pivotal role in enforcing fiscal discipline by capping public investments at EGP 1 trillion.

This approach supports macroeconomic stability while creating space for structural reforms.

As a result, private sector investments accounted for 63% of Egypt’s total investments in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, up from just 27% three years ago. The government aims to continue increasing this share in the coming years.

Mashat also noted the government's efforts to boost foreign direct investment (FDI) by introducing financial incentives and pushing forward structural reforms, especially in tradable and export-oriented sectors.

She stressed the importance of partnerships with international financial institutions (IFIs) to stimulate investments and facilitate private sector financing.

Since 2020, these partnerships have yielded more than dlrs 14.5 billion in financing, with concessional loans to the private sector reaching dlrs 4.2 billion last year, surpassing, for the first time, those directed to the public sector. (MENA)

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