Maait made his statements during his participation in the second day of the Egyptian Petroleum Show (EGYPS 2022) conference that kicked off in Cairo on Monday.

On Monday, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated the fifth edition of the EGYPS 2022, which is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday.

Maait noted that over 50 percent of this power is generated by the private sector companies with a total of 3,500 MW.

Touching upon the presidential initiative that aims to convert old gasoline-run vehicles to run on natural gas, Maait expounded that EGP 7.1 billion has been allocated for implementing the initiative as a step paving the way for Egypt to move incrementally towards lower-emission vehicles.

For Egypt’s first-of-its-kind green bonds issued in 2020, Maait explained that their proceeds are currently financing 15 national eco-friendly projects.

Egypt received the first green finance, as a result of this issuance, in November 2021 with a total value of $1.5 billion from number of international financial institutions and development banks.

Maait said that 46 percent of this finance is allocated for clean-transportation projects and 54 percent is dedicated for sustainable management and desalination of water and sanitation projects, which all contribute to achieving Egypt’s climate action plan.

“The private sector is a key partner in attaining Egypt’s green and sustainable growth. 30 percent of total investments in FY2021/2022 is dedicated to the green projects,” the minister highlighted.

Addressing Egypt’s key targets at the macroeconomic level, the minister noted that the government eyes approaching pre-pandemic levels with 5.7 percent in real GDP growth in FY2022/23.

He added that Egypt’s real GDP growth reached 5.3 percent and 5.6 percent in real GDP growth in FY2017/18 and FY2018/19 respectively, and then the rate descended to 3.6 percent as a result of the pandemic.