Egypt's cabinet has appointed the former deputy director of the Egyptian Centre for Economic Studies (ECES), Naglaa El-Ahwany, as its new economic consultant, according to a statement on the cabinet's Facebook page on Wednesday.
El-Ahwany is an economic researcher at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Cairo. She has published several studies on informal labour and rural development, issues that are particularly relevant to Egypt's economic agenda.
She is also responsible for many publications on development issues, workers' rights and legal empowerment of the poor, among them: 'Promoting farm/non-farm linkages for rural development in Egypt', 'The construction and related engineering services: challenges and policies', 'Employment-poverty linkages: towards a pro-poor employment policy framework in Egypt', and 'Labor market competitiveness and flexibility in Egypt'.
El-Ahwany also served as director of the European Studies Center at the faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University, and is a member of the National Council for Women's economic committee.
Her appointment comes one day after military sources warned that Egypt's foreign reserves could run out in six months if the country's economic and security situation continued to deteriorate, and that poverty levels in Egypt were nearing 70 per cent. These figures were disputed by many economic analysts.
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