Minister of Planning: The informal sector accounts for 40% of GDP
In a report issued by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, it reviewed the policies and initiatives proposed to increase employment levels in the current plan for the fiscal year 2022/2023.
dr. Hala Al-Saeed, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, stated that the sectoral distribution of new jobs expected to be created during the plan year shows that pioneering, labor-intensive sectors monopolize most of the new jobs, namely agriculture, construction, wholesale and retail trade and the processing industry, which is expected to absorb a total of about 60% of the total jobs.
Likewise, the human and social development sectors are expected to absorb about 14% of the total amount, which shows that the sectoral distributions are estimated based on the relative distribution of workers contained in the Labor Force Bulletin of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (Q4 2020) and sectoral expectations of production growth during the year.
Regarding the policies and initiatives proposed to improve the level of employment in the 2023/22 plan, the report of the Ministry of Planning stated that it is represented in encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises, in light of the importance of this sector and its main role in improving development in various sectors and providing employment opportunities, therefore the government’s efforts want to continue to support the development of this sector by providing the necessary funds for the establishment of new projects and the expansion of existing ones, as well as by providing technical support and developing human capabilities through the expansion of training programs to improve the skills of workers, as well as improving the general climate for business.
The report reviewed some of the policies and initiatives that support these guidelines, including the initiatives of the Agency for the Development of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises, as Law no. 152 from 2020 and its executive regulations consider the beginning of the approval of many financial incentives and benefits. , as well as the role of the “decent life” rural development initiative of Egypt in addition to the social objectives of this initiative. It aims to create a favorable economic environment to provide jobs in the targeted governorates and provide all financial, technical and training services to help villagers establish small and micro projects that provide them with stable job opportunities, in addition to the initiatives of the Central Bank of Egypt. These initiatives aim to provide credit facilities with low interest for small projects. Among these initiatives: The Nile Pioneers Initiative, which aims to provide consulting services and assistance in establishing projects and crystallization of ideas into reality, assistance in the expansion and preparation of feasibility studies, as well as awareness and knowledge raising services, etc., and the establishment of specialized units within banks that will serve these projects, in addition to other programs, such as the Initiative to support young people, entrepreneurs and idea holders, and emerging small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, an initiative to encourage banks to increase the volume of financing, because in this regard the Central Bank launched three initiatives to enable the financing of the establishment of small projects, provide working capital and reject unprofitable projects, initiatives that support the industrial sector and examples of these: Initiatives, Your factory is ready initiative, the initiative for the free allocation of industrial land in Upper Egypt, the initiative for industrial crisis management in partnership between investors and the General Authority for Industrial Development, as well as the initiative of the General Investment Authority called “Your Idea Your Company” to establish a central department for business administration that will work on spreading the idea and culture of entrepreneurship. , as well as Providing integrated packages of technical support to startup owners in all phases of the project.
The report also referred to initiatives and mechanisms to encourage the integration of the informal sector into the structure of the national economy, since the informal sector currently accounts for about 40% of GDP (about EGP 2.6 trillion). In order to encourage integration by activating the following policies and mechanisms: approving financial incentives to encourage inclusion in the formal sector, such as the initiative of the political leadership for a five-year tax exemption for those who join the formal market, facilitating business procedures in terms of licensing, registration , building permits and business expenses in general, and giving free land or at nominal prices. In the proposed industrial complexes, expanding the social insurance umbrella to cover workers in the informal sector, implementing comprehensive health insurance to cover workers in this sector, providing technical and financial support to micro-enterprises to improve their production efficiency, revising labor laws to give them sufficient flexibility for the employment of workers in the formal sector, Concern for improving the quality of education and ensuring that its results are in line with the requirements of the labor market For interdependencies between the formal (organized) sector and the informal sector, work on unifying concepts in informal sector policies and increase applied studies and field research dealing with the study and analysis of the economic and social dimensions of this sector and ways to accelerate the process of integration into the national economy, introducing the advantages of joining the formal sector in terms of the possibility of dealing with the banking system m (financial inclusion), and taking advantage of the initiatives offered by the banking sector, with the possibility of exporting.
The report addressed the economic empowerment of women, since the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030 includes four main pillars represented in political, economic and social empowerment and protection from all forms of violence against women, adding that in terms of the economic position of women Empowerment, the plan emphasizes the importance developing the ability of women to expand their professional opportunities and increase their participation in the workforce and achieving equal opportunities in terms of employment of women in all sectors.
A report by the Ministry of Planning showed that Egypt has launched an initiative to bridge the gender gap. And efforts to increase financial inclusion, increase savings rates and encourage women to entrepreneurship by improving their access to financial services, especially banking services. The National Council for Women, the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies and Canadian Aid have prepared a Guide to Egyptian Women’s Entrepreneurship, with the aim of promoting the economic empowerment of Egyptian women.
The guide aims to build the capacity of women who want to start a project to help them secure adequate income, while helping women who already have a project and want to expand it or who face problems in its implementation by providing advice and guidance.
The Mastoura program was also launched through Nasser Bank to provide financing programs for women with the aim of transforming them from recipients of support to active and productive elements, and £320 million was disbursed to around 19,000 beneficiaries, with 3,000 Mistoura loans awarded to determined women for their inclusion into economic life Likewise, service centers for working women were established with the aim of encouraging them to participate in the labor market through 41 centers in 22 provinces; The number of users of these centers is 195,000, with the beginning of the development and expansion of crèches in an innovative way for receiving the children of working women.
On the other hand, the projects “Women and work”, “Qadam Al-Khair” and “One village, one product” were implemented as programs to strengthen the economic empowerment of women through information technology, as well as “Adha and Adud” an initiative was launched to the owners of handicrafts of authentic Egyptian character were provided with their craft and work to develop and promote it, and the Egyptian Cotton from Planting to Harvest initiative was launched to train women on improved harvesting to increase cotton productivity.
