Finance min.: Egyptian economy managed to maintain resiliency in face of COVID-19 crisis

CAIRO - 29 October 2020: Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said the Egyptian economy managed to maintain resiliency in the face of the fallout of the coronavirus due to the historic economic reforms over the past few years.

During a meeting with Swiss Ambassador in Cairo Paul Garnier, Maait underlined that the government will continue structural reforms to be able to positively deal with domestic and international challenges.

He noted that Egypt was the only country in the Middle East and Africa to maintain the confidence of international rating institutions; namely Standard & Poor's Global Rating, Moody's and Fitch, during the hard period which the international economy faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government is keen on promoting bilateral cooperation with the Swiss side in various fields, particularly in the health, education, transport and renewable energy, he said, referring the to the mechanism of accomplishing the Benban giant project for producing electricity from solar energy.

He noted that what Egypt achieved over the part two years in developing the educational mechanism contributed to professionally deal with the coronavirus repercussions and use up-to-date technology to secure various education resources while adhering to the preventive measures.

The coronavirus crisis underlined the importance of states' dependence on their own resources and this what Egypt did, he said.

He added that Egypt is looking forward to cooperating with the Swiss side to transform to digital economy, upping the efficiency of financial management, proceeding with structural reform of the Egyptian economy and upskilling employees of customs and taxes authorities.

For his part, the Swiss ambassador extolled the successful Egyptian experiment in economic reform at the financial and monetary levels.

He stressed his country's keenness on furthering cooperation with Egypt in various domains, especially in the fields of structural and procedural reform and honing skills of human cadres.