Egypt's Ministry of Planning and Managerial Reform explained on Sunday that the newly passed law on pensions and insurance for government workers, which raises the age of retirement to 65, does not contradict with the already existing civil service law, which allows gives the option for early retirement.

In a statement about the new social insurance and pensions draft law, which was approved by the House of Representatives two weeks ago, the ministry said that applying the new retirement age by 2030 should give enough time to evaluate the conditions and needs of the public and private sectors.

"There is no contradiction between the new pensions and insurance draft law and the civil service law, considering that the former stipulates the increase of the retirement age while the latter gives the choice of early retirement for civil servants," the statement said.

"The average age of Egyptians has begun to increase due to the availability of medical care, which means there is a need to benefit from the expertise of employees [past the age of retirement]."

The ministry also addressed the public sector employee training programmes adopted recently.

"Concerning upgrading the skills of employees, the ministry has already trained 21,000 employees in one year and is expected to finalise the training of 100,000 employees by next year," the statement said, adding that training programmes have been launched in cooperation with the American University in Cairo (AUC) and King's College in London.

The ministry added that the state cannot evaluate and hold employees accountable without training them first, adding that there has been high demand for the training programmes provided by the ministry.

Concerning the New Administrative Capital and the residences there for government workers, the ministry stated that the government is providing residence for young people with at a suitable price through instalments in cooperation with the banks in Egypt.