Private sector expected to contribute 75pc of investments in coming 5-year plan

The role of the Ministry of Planning in working out the state's development economic and social plan.

The ministry's current program focuses on increasing the contribution of the private sector in the development process. The sector is expected to contribute 70 to 75 per cent of the investments needed for the coming five-year plan, 2002-2007.

Accordingly, the ministry has urged the private sector to take part in drawing up the investment and development plans for the coming five years for the sake of achieving a clear economic development strategy together with realising integration and coordination with official and private investments.

The Joint Planning Committee which is comprised of government officials and private sector representatives has so far held two meetings chaired by Minister of Planning, Osman Mohammed Osman.

Addressing the first meeting, Osman said that preparing the fifth five-year plan would take place amidst circumstances that were completely different from the previous four plans.

This is why the government was seeking more than one view or a scenario for the 2002-2007 plan. He also stressed the significance of enhancing cooperation between the government and the private sector in that respect in order to identify the general targets of the new plan.

During the second meeting, former minister of economy, Sultan Abu Ali, tackled the prospects of the economic and social development process till 2022 for which two scenarios had been set, one is optimistic and the other is conservative.

He said that in order to implement the two scenarios there were certain requirements including increasing productivity, capital and local savings by 25.6 per cent by 2022 ,boosting direct foreign investments and distributing investments to the regions in need.

He added that they would also require more encouragement for the private sector, achieving stability, reducing expenditure, fighting corruption, abolishing development obstacles and enhancing the economic cooperation with the Arab world and Africa.

As for the 2002-2007 plan, Abu Ali said that it would come at a time when the world's economic atmosphere was going through significant changes on both the national and world levels.

One of these important changes was the slow pace of the economic growth especially following the September 11 events, which left such negative impact on the world economy as a whole.

With regard to the investments required for the plan, Abu Ali said that they were expected to hit LE362.7 billion or LE72.5 billion every year on the condition of achieving an annual growth rate of 6 per cent. Hence, the private sector's contribution is expected to reach LE50 billion annually during the five years of the plan.

Meanwhile, Minister Osman stressed that investments spent on the giant national projects were not the cause of recession in the market. "Investments in these national projects have reached LE13.6 billion till December last year. Up to LE billion of these investments were spent before the beginning of the fourth five-year plan of 1997-2002, and LE7.4 billion during the five years of the plan.

The figure would reach LE billion by the end of the plan or about 5 per cent of its targeted investments.

Replying to a question on the contribution by the private sector in the current five-year plan that ends on June 31, Osman said that the actual contribution by the private sector to the plan did not exceed 50 to 52 per cent, but the figure was targeted to hit about 75 per cent of the total investments of the new plan that would start this year.