Arab countries lose $140B during 2020 due to coronavirus: Egypt's Planning Ministry

CAIRO – 1 April 2021: Coronavirus pandemic has caused the Arab region to incur heavy losses of approximately $ 140 billion during 2020, according to the Ministry of Planning.

The Ministry stated in a recent report that the whole world is in an unprecedented state of challenges in light of the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, whose severity and economic, social and environmental repercussions have exceeded all previous crises, as the pandemic has resulted in the suffering of most countries of the world, and its repercussions have negatively affected the efforts of all countries to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.

The report emphasized that Egypt has implemented many development efforts, foremost of which is the National Program for Economic and Social Reform, which contributed to enhancing the Egyptian economy's resilience in facing the crisis.

The report indicated that Egypt worked to prioritize in light of the pandemic, focusing on investing in human capital and increasing allocations to the health and education sectors, and paying attention to sectors that are resilient and capable of rapid recovery, as well as promising sectors that represent a basic pillar for promoting comprehensive and sustainable growth, such as the telecommunications, information technology, manufacturing, agriculture, and small and medium enterprises sectors, as well as integrating the informal sector, enhancing financial inclusion, and supporting digitization infrastructure.

This comes within the framework of enhancing the trend towards digital transformation, expanding new and renewable energy projects, in addition to the transition to the green economy, by working to achieve 30 percent of investment projects in the state’s plans for the concepts of environmental sustainability and green economy, so that the percentage will rise to 50 percent in the next three years.