CAIRO, 26 September 2004 — Egypt is ready to let foreign companies manage state-owned businesses but will not give up control of those it sees as strategic, President Hosni Mubarak’s spokesman said yesterrday. “Strategic businesses will remain state property, but in order for them to be well managed and profitable we may have to call on managers from the private sector,” Magued Abdel Fattah said following a meeting between Mubarak and the government’s economic group to discuss privatisation policy.
The Egyptian public sector includes 176 large companies, employing over 400,000 people whose salaries account for 4.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($720 million) of the state budget. The public-private partnerships would be open to Egyptian, Arab and foreign companies “without exception”, Fattah said, although he did not specify which companies were concerned. The state also has holdings in almost 700 private companies, Fattah said, adding that the government envisaged selling its shares in these companies “according to an as yet undecided timetable.”
The reform-minded government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif that took office in July has pledged to turn around Egypt’s ailing economy and rein in high inflation, skyrocketing unemployment and a huge debt burden. Nazif earlier this month announced sweeping reforms of the banking sector, privatising some state-owned banks and selling off state shares in joint banks.
