Improvement in Egypt’s economic situation to not be felt unless population growth is controlled: Sisi

CAIRO – 22 April 2022: President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi reaffirmed that people in Egypt will not be able to feel the improvement in the local economic situation unless population growth is controlled.

The president added that the volume of development in Egypt has not matched the size of the population as he held an expanded meeting with a group of journalists and media personnel on the sidelines of his inspection tour on Thursday in Upper Egypt’s Toshka project.

Egypt has lost a large portion of its foreign reserve in the economic crisis which started after 2011, Sisi said, referring to the year that witnessed political turbulence in the country.

 

“If this (the economic reform program) did not happen, our situation would have become very hard currently or at the time of the coronavirus crisis,” Sisi said, adding that economic reforms have made the country more resilient to economic crises.

The Egyptian economy managed to withstand and absorb international shocks and achieve a positive growth, Sisi said, adding that the current crisis is of a very serious impact.

He affirmed that the Ukraine crisis has highly affected world countries, including Egypt, highlighting that he has been keen to ensure the availability of a strategic reserve of basic commodities to face possible crises.

The state managed to make basic commodities available in abundance despite the international crisis, the president added.

 

Sisi then gave the green light for the opening of some wheat silos via video in several governorates and watched a documentary on Egypt’s achievements to secure the wheat needed for local consumption.

Egypt has cultivated 217,700 feddans of agricultural lands as part of the project that produce around 550,000 tons of wheat annually, according to the documentary.

Egypt has also established seven new wheat silos with a total storage capacity of 420,000 tons in Arab Al-Olaikat area in Qalyubia, Bani Salamah in Giza, New Salhia city in Sharqia, and Abu Suwir in Ismailia as well as in the areas of San El-Hagar, El-Hammam, and Kharga.

During the inauguration ceremony, Egypt's Supply Minister Ali Moselhi said Egypt has been able to build resilience to external shocks during the inflation the resulted from the pandemic as well as the Ukrainian-Russian crisis thanks to relevant measures in this regard.

Despite the international shocks, Egypt has strategic wheat reserves that can last until January next year, he said.

Egypt has so far 2.6 million tons of imported wheat and targets to collect 5.5-6 million tons of local wheat and therefore strategic wheat reserves can last for 6-9 months, the minister affirmed.

Thanks to the project of establishing wheat silos since 2014, storage capacity has increased to 3.4 million tons of wheat from 1.2 million tons in 2014, Moselhi said.

The project to establish wheat silos has saved annual wheat loss estimated at at least 10 percent of the production, representing about $6.5 billion, which is almost the same value as the project so far, according to the minister.

Egypt seeks to increase strategic wheat reserves capacity to five million tons by building 60 field silos with a total capacity of 600,000 tons, building new silos in Toshka, Sharq El-Owainat, Dabaa, Qena and Farafra, and raising storage capacity of some existing silos, according to the minister.