Egypt’s Planning Ministry releases human development plan for Sohag in FY2020/21

CAIRO - 15 November 2020: The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development announced the Citizen Investment Plan for Sohag Governorate for the fiscal year (FY) 2020/2021, as part of the Ministry's issuance of the Citizen Plan for the second year in a row in the governorates of Egypt.

Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Hala El-Said explained that the “Citizen’s Plan” comes to affirm the citizen’s right to know the directions of the state's sustainable development plan. The minister stressed that it provides detailed information on investments directed by the state to each governorate and distributes them to different sectors.

El-Said added that the information contained in the plan helps the citizen to follow up on projects in his governorate, city, or village, which contributes to integrating the citizen into the planning and follow-up systems.

El-Said explained that the four main objectives of the citizen’s plan are the localization of sustainable development goals, enhancing transparency, activating community participation, and spreading the culture of programs and performance.

El-Said pointed to the public investments directed to the Sohag governorate in the FY 2020/2021 plan amounted to LE5.8 billion, with an increase of 48.7% from the FY 2019/2020 plan.

“Public investments in Sohag Governorate are distributed across different sectors, as LE2.5 billion is allocated to the housing sector, utilities and urban communities, LE1.56 billion for the local development sector, LE494.6 million for the education and technical education sector, LE444 million for the health and population sector, in addition to LE240 million for higher education and LE640.4 million for other sectors,” she explained.

The report of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development reviewed what the citizen’s plan offers for the most important projects in the governorate. It stated that in the field of housing services, the plan includes 160 projects, whereby LE2.5 billion were allocated to develop housing services, utilities, and urban communities.

The report also dealt with the most important development goals in the FY 2020/2021 plan in the field of housing, which is to direct about LE1.76 billion for drinking water and sanitation services and to direct LE345.2 million to develop unsafe informal areas and markets.

In the field of local development, the report stated that the plan includes 69 projects with LE1.56 billion of investment allocated for local development, mostly in transportation and the construction sectors.

The aforementioned projects included overhead bridges for LE41.6 million, rural and urban development projects for LE119.3 million, local administration projects, and technical support for LE122 million, environmental improvement projects for LE300.9 million, local economic development projects for LE694 million.

The report also reviewed the plan for the governorate in the field of pre-university education, which includes 13 projects with investments of LE494.6 million. These projects include establishing and equipping (secondary education) classes for LE8.6 million, developing the general office, and educational departments in Sohag Governorate for LE8.6 million.

Concerning the healthcare sector, the report revealed that the plan includes 14 projects with investments amounting to LE444 million to develop health services. These include the establishment of the central hospital in Tahta for LE50 million, the completion of the development of the Sohag Teaching Hospital in Sohag with LE54 million, the establishment of the Al-Ballina Hospital for LE60 million, the establishment of Saqliteh Central Hospital in Sohag, at a cost of about LE61 million.