The prime minister made the announcement at a press conference held on Sunday to discuss the government’s plan to cope with the global economic crisis.

Egypt’s IPO programme, which was started in 2019, was postponed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

The government resumed the programme's implementation in 2021 with the listing of the state-owned digital services platform e-finance.

Madbouly said that seven of the country's largest ports will be merged into one company, and seven hotels under the public business sector will be merged under one umbrella.

These mergers should pave the way for offering these companies on the global financial markets, he explained.

Madbouly also revealed that the government will announce the state's policy on the ownership of companies before the end of May, with the objective of raising the private sector’s share in economic activities to 65 percent over the next three years, up from the current 30 percent.

The prime minister explained that the state aims to offer state-owned assets with a total value of $40 billion for both local and foreign private sector participation over the coming four years.

The government will also announce which production sectors it plans to stop investing in and which ones it plans to focus on in the coming three years, in light of Egypt’s Vision 2030 and sustainable development plan.

Madbouly added that the government has allocated EGP 130 billion as a financial package to deal with the direct negative impacts of the war in Ukraine and another EGP 335 billion to deal with its indirect impacts.

Regarding the industrial sector, Madbouly said that the government is considering shifting to the POT system in terms of utilising industrial-purpose lands, adding that land pricing will be applied according to the value of the utilities and in instalments.