This coincides with the state embarking on a broad plan to bolster the role of the private sector, with the government withdrawing from non-strategic industries.

The list of attendees included most of the big names in the business arena, with the real estate and hospitality tycoon Hisham Talaat Mustafa, the owner of the largest steel producers in the local market, Ezz Steel and Ezz Al-Dekheila, Ahmed Ezz, and the head of a business group whose activities cover energy solutions, manufacturing, lighting systems, building materials, retail and real estate development, Ahmed Al- Seweedy.

They highlighted the main problems affecting their businesses and impediments to more investments being pumped into the country. Those rotated around the high interest rates, which made borrowing very costly, the still-limited supply of US dollars, together with spiralling inflation and the weak performance of the state bureaucracy.

The private sector representatives called for the formation of committees that include businessmen as well as the state and Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) representatives to study the effect of high interest rates to guarantee that economic decision-making should take the effect of the rates on the cost of doing business into account.

They also demanded recruiting younger, better-educated personnel with new ideas in the state apparatus – to modernise the way the state bureaucracy is managed. Supporting the foreign currency-yielding sectors by giving incentives to Egyptian expats to increase remittances, adopting wider export support schemes and investing in the tourism industry were also among the suggestions.

The prime minister’s responses covered some of the private sector’s concerns starting with the expectation that interest rates will take a downward turn to range between 12-13 per cent by the end of 2025 with a growth rate hopefully exceeding four per cent. He noted that, while the US dollar deficit is currently at 20-22 billion, the government plans to bridge it by increasing tourism revenues as well as supporting industry and export.

A committee is also being drawn up to develop the tourism sector as it is the fastest dollar-yielding sector, according to Madbouli, who added that soon two giant hotel projects – one in the area surrounding the Grand Museum, another at the Ministries Square in the old downtown area – are being launched.

Mustafa Madbouli also revealed that the minister of Investment has been tasked with preparing a new export support programme within three months, based on encouraging companies to increase their annual export volume.

The meeting is a positive step on the road to levelling the field for the private sector provided that a task group is formed to study the suggestions of the businessmen and supervise its implementation. Such meetings should be regular, to guarantee that the private sector is involved in placing and implementing the state’s economic plans. Meanwhile, in the next few meetings, there should be representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises that represent the bulk of the Egyptian private sector.

The ministers of investment, finance and industry together with representatives of the banking sector and the CBE should be present so that such discussions should include all stakeholders. If the government is committed to giving the private sector a broader role in the economy, committees of both the House of Representatives and the Senators should also invite representatives of the sector to present their perspective when discussing legislation that would affect their work such as new tariffs or customs.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 9 January, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly