of SMEs in Egypt are operating in the informal financial sector. Financial inclusion also supports
the non-monetary economy, which offers many advantages, the most important of which are the
reduction of costs and financial burdens. This policy also has positive effects on social
development through focusing attention on poor and low-income groups and the economic
empowerment of women by overcoming obstacles to access to financial services fairly and
transparently and at reasonable prices, in order to achieve the principle of equality. In this
context, a number of measures were adopted to ensure financial inclusion, including:
a. The Central Bank introduced a real estate finance initiative for low- and middle-income
investors at reduced interest rates.
B. Initiating initiatives to enable SMEs to obtain the necessary funding.
C. Completion of the draft financial education strategy at the Institute of Banking.
4. In parallel, a number of laws have been adopted by the government and submitted to the
House of Representatives, including Decrees No. 77, 78, 79 and 80 of 2017 in order to increase
the income of the neediest families. The government has also initiated a number of major
national projects aimed at achieving comprehensive economic development in all sectors,
notably:
a) The establishment of a new administrative capital on an area of 170 thousand feddans
which will accommodate 6.5 million citizens.
b) The establishment of integrated development in the Suez Canal area, where the new
Suez Canal was dug within a period of one year, in parallel with the start of work on the
establishment of a global logistics center.
c) Cooperation with Siemens Germany in the construction of three power plants in Beni
Suef, Al-Burlus and the new administrative capital to add 14400 MW to the National Grid
for Electricity, an increase of 45 percent. The first phase was implemented in 18 months.
d) The construction of 2,405 km of roads up to April 2017 under a scheme to construct a
new network of roads with a length of 5,415.5 km, representing a 22 percent increase to
the existing road network.
e) The launch of a fish-farming project on an area of 7,500 feddans to establish 4,000 fishfarming ponds to achieve self-sufficiency and export surplus production. The first phase
of this project was completed on an area of 1,900 acres.
f)
The inauguration of a project to cultivate four million feddans in order to increase the
current agricultural area and fill the food gap, along with the establishment of many
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