Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly met this morning with Dr. Ahmed Rostom, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, and ministry officials to follow up on the ministry's most important files.

The meeting opened with a review of macroeconomic developments and current performance indicators. The minister outlined the economic and social development plan for fiscal year 2026/2027, explaining that it targets a growth rate of up to 5.4%, with total investments of EGP 3.7 trillion. He noted that the private sector accounts for about 59% of these investments, reflecting the state's commitment to expanding its contribution and strengthening productive capacity and manufacturing.

The Minister of Planning and Economic Development also reviewed the main features of the National Program for Economic Transformation (2027-2030), which is being prepared on the basis of existing sectoral strategies, the industrial development strategy and the national employment strategy. Its pillars aim to apply specific measures to entrench the national economy's resilience to crises; strengthen the tools for private-sector participation and enable it to compete; raise employment and productivity levels and thereby create jobs that improve citizens' living standards; make the distribution of public and private investment across governorates more efficient; govern public finances; increase energy production and efficiency and expand its use and export; and establish an effective framework for coordination between the Central Bank and the Ministries of Finance and of Planning and Economic Development.

The minister also discussed the key steps the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development is taking to develop legal and legislative frameworks in order to improve the investment climate and protect investors' rights, alongside efforts to support entrepreneurship, startups and fast-growing companies and strengthen their competitiveness. He also covered the structural reforms in the "State Ownership Policy Document" and the government offerings program, which aim to make room for the private sector to lead growth, together with expanding innovative long-term financing tools, diversifying funding sources and boosting liquidity to facilitate the expansion of national and private projects, and broadening the tax base electronically.

Reflecting the state's focus on developing human capital, Dr. Ahmed Rostom pointed to active steps in this area. He noted his recent meeting with LinkedIn officials to discuss strengthening cooperation on using big data to track the skills most in demand in the labor market, helping decision-makers plan the workforce. He also cited an expanded meeting with a delegation from ESLSCA University to discuss renewing and expanding the academic and training partnership between the government and the university in qualifying and training leaders and staff of the state's administrative apparatus. The aim is to build on the results of this partnership, which has provided 1500 scholarships for young government leaders to earn a Master of Public Business Administration degree and brought new blood into the state's administrative apparatus, in pursuit of building human capacity and developing leadership and management skills as a key pillar for raising government performance and supporting institutional development.