The Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation announced the pillars of the 2025/2026 Economic and Social Development Plan, which officially began implementation last July.
This comes at a time when the Egyptian state is seeking to continue its development path amid consecutive regional and international challenges.
H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, highlighted that the 2025/2026 plan project embodies the new approach adopted by the ministry after the merger of the planning, economic development, and international cooperation portfolios. The, "Financing for Development," ensures consistency and linkage between national and sectoral development plans and strategies. It also maximizes the benefits from various funding sources, whether from the public treasury or from facilitated development finance flows from bilateral and multilateral development partners, thereby serving the state's plans and developmental directions.
H.E. Dr. Al-Mashat added that in preparing the plan, the ministry was keen to continue its commitment to the ceiling on public investments as part of efforts to manage and govern public investments. This is considered the primary pillar for achieving macroeconomic stability and mobilizing other funding sources by attracting foreign direct investment, holding major Arab and regional investment partnerships, and reinforcing the state's direction to make room for private sector participation in development efforts.
The main pillars for the plan’s objectives were formulated to create a new methodology for preparing the 2025/2026 development plan document. This new methodology considers preparing the annual plan within a medium-term budgetary framework (2025/2026 – 2028/2029), which includes the budget year and three subsequent years. This unifies the time frame of the plan from the perspective of both the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation and the Ministry of Finance.
In addition, the plan reinforces a participatory approach to its preparation, in line with Planning Law No. 18 of 2022. It also uses advanced planning tools that the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation has introduced to improve the efficiency of public investment, monitor international financing and public investments, track and evaluate performance, and coordinate and cooperate with relevant ministries and entities. This is done to improve the quality of development plans by providing all implementing agencies with a plan preparation guide, which establishes criteria for project selection, economic feasibility studies, and public investment evaluation for each implementing agency.
The plan's priorities also focus on continuing to implement the National Structural Reform Program across its three pillars, which include: strengthening macroeconomic stability, increasing competitiveness and improving the business environment to increase private sector participation, and supporting the transition to a green economy. It also aims to push the Egyptian economy towards tradable and export-oriented sectors to enhance productive capacities.
The Economic and Social Development Plan document outlined that it is based on applying a "priorities" approach to manage and improve the efficiency of public investments. This approach gives priority to boosting economic growth in the sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, communications, and information technology, as well as other sectors where Egypt has a comparative advantage, such as tourism and logistics. It also prioritizes service sectors concerned with health, pre-university and university education, and scientific research, while considering the regional distribution of local investments to reduce development gaps across governorates.
The report underscored that the plan document highlights the expected effects of the reform movements that have been made at the level of macroeconomic performance and the various economic sectors. The plan relies on these to target an economic growth rate of 4.5% in 2025/2026.
With the targeted growth rate, the gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to rise to about 9.1 trillion EGP at constant prices in 2025/2026. At current prices, it is expected to record about 20.4 trillion EGP, compared to an expected 17.3 trillion EGP in 2024/2025, an increase of 18%.
Regarding investments, the plan document aims to increase total targeted investments to nearly 3.5 trillion EGP for the first time, compared to the expected investments of 2.6 trillion EGP for 2024/2025 and actual investments of 1.8 trillion EGP for 2023/2024. This shows the state's conviction of the important role investment plays as a key and active driver of economic growth. Meanwhile, the investment rate is targeted to rise to 17.1% of GDP in 2025/2026, compared to lower rates in the two previous years (15% in 2024/2025 and 13% in 2023/2024).
The plan document expects private investments to increase to about 1.94 trillion EGP, with a contribution of about 63% of the total, versus 37% for public investments, given the state's direction to support efforts aimed at accelerating the growth of the private sector, while emphasizing the principles of good governance and competitive neutrality.
The Economic and Social Development Plan has allocated about 1.16 trillion EGP as targeted public investments for the 2025/2026 plan. This is compared to expected public investments of around one trillion EGP in 2024/2025, in line with the state's commitment to the set ceiling on public investments to govern public spending, reduce the debt burden resulting from servicing domestic and foreign public debt, and open wider fields for local private sector participation in development efforts, in addition to foreign direct investment flows in development projects, especially high-tech projects.
Rania Al-Mashat
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