Mahmoud Mohieldin: growth rates in North Africa and the Middle East fell to 1.3%

World Bank Vice President Mahmoud Mohieldin said growth in North Africa and the Middle East fell 1.3 percent from 1.9 percent.

Mohieldin stated in a statement on the sidelines of a seminar on the implementation of sustainable development goals at the National Planning Institute on Saturday that the decline in growth rates is due to tensions in global trade, pressure on the financial markets and the general weakness of global economic growth rates, which fell to 2.6%, after reaching 3%, in addition to political risks and climate change.

Mohieldin stressed that Arab countries need huge investments in infrastructure, health and education and that countries cannot achieve sustainable development with weak growth rates, the growth rate must be high and inclusive for all, and only from a more global economic policy.

Mohieldin pointed out that some Arab countries have achieved significant growth rates above 5%, such as Egypt, others were below the average rate of 1.3%, pointing out that the overall rates in the region are not good .

"There are good and promising opportunities for private sector participation in numerous investments in the Arab world," said Mohieldin.

He stressed that the goals of sustainable development will not be achieved without updating science and taking advantage of technology and innovation, emphasizing the need to develop the Arab economic base and the general control rules for data protection and investment in human capital. The world is experiencing the Arab economy of what we might call "changes in the era of great confusion".

He pointed out that this era represents waves of human displacement, increasing the number of refugees as well as the increase in the risk of drought, climate change and the pace of technological change.

Dr. Hala Al-Said, Minister of Planning, Follow-up and Administrative Reform, stated the enthusiasm of Egypt to cooperate with her brothers in the Arab countries to achieve sustainable development, indicating the participation of Egypt through the Ministry of planning, follow-up and administrative reform in the preparation of the progress report on the efforts of the Arab countries, the Arab League and its system in achieving the objectives. Sustainable development 2030, which includes the monitoring of the state of sustainable development objectives in the Arab region in 2015-2018, as well as the Egypt that hosts the Arab week for sustainable development in its first and second session in May 2017 and November 2018 in cooperation and partnership with the Ministry of Planning, Follow-up and Administrative Reform is currently coordinating with the Arab League to organize the third edition of the Arab Week for Sustainable Development.

Al-Saeed explained that there is a fundamental challenge to support the sustainable development process based on the availability and availability of data with the required classifications of geographic location, age and gender, emphasizing that Egypt seeks to address this challenge, through the global development of the data system, and emphasized the role of the Central Agency Agency, in collaboration with other agencies and government institutions, developed a national statistical strategy, established an electronic platform to accelerate and codify the process of measuring, monitoring and monitoring the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals and starting the "Activation" initiative, which works on Activating the role of localities in the collection and measurement of data at the local level, in addition to establishing a national committee for review and improve the quality of statistics in collaboration with international institutions such as the IMF Bank and the African Development Bank.

Al-Saeed stressed that he held the planning conference for the future of Egypt in light of the results of the general census of the population, housing and establishments for 2017, which was organized by the Ministry of Planning, of the follow- up and administrative reform in collaboration with the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics and the Economic Research Forum, during which numerous in-depth studies were presented. , Which examines the policies of the population and analyzes the situation of important sectors of development in Egypt are: "Education, health and urban development".

For his part, Dr. Ashraf Al-Arabi, Advisor of the Arab Planning Institute, said that the seminar discusses three central issues, namely the question of data, statistics and information, which is not measurable the question of financing cannot be reached because it represents a great challenge to achieve the goals of sustainable development in all the countries of the world, in particular the countries. Firstly, the costs for achieving the objectives, then the calculation of the financing deficit and the search for different sources of funding for sustainable development objectives, and finally the problem of local or local development of the UN objectives, since the real challenge is to achieve the goals at the local level, stressed that the workshop in which a select group of senior officials in the Arab countries take part in those implementing sustainable development at the national and local level agenda, and the purpose of the exchange of experiences between countries and listen to the opinions of international experts in this field.

The seminar on "Implementation of sustainable development goals in the Arab world" was held in collaboration with the National Planning Institute in Egypt, the Arab Planning Institute in Kuwait and the World Bank and aims to exchange experiences and provide participants with the latest international knowledge and best practices in implementing development goals. sustainable.