Egypt Ministry of Finance Winds Up Its Strategic Planning Forum

Ministry of Finance wound up, last Sunday, proceedings of the Strategic Planning Forum, bearing the slogan "Together we…plan, work and succeed". Held under the auspices of finance minister Dr. Maait, the three-day forum was attended by Mr. Ahmed Kouchouck, vice minister of finance for fiscal policies and heads of different sectors and central departments. The forum was organized by the Projects Unit at the ministry, headed by Ms. Nerman Al-Heeny, and was supported and financed by UN development programme.

Following are the main points discussed and raised by the attendees: Mr. Kouchouk, Vice Minister of Finance for fiscal policies and institutional development, pointed out that previously held workshops yielded unexpected results and helped in establishing common grounds among all the ministry's sectors and departments' heads. Objectives and mechanisms of the ministry's strategy, being prepared at present, are formulated by the ministry's senior officials in order to reach the set goals and be effectively implemented, he added.

As noted by Mr. Kouchouk, main goals set by the workshops held during the forum are: practicing efficiency and effectiveness in allocating resources of the state's general budget, setting stability mechanisms for the current status, curbing deficit, reducing debt, increasing financing of social development programs, improving the social image of the Ministry of Finance, and setting a mechanism for enhancing implementation performance of the strategic plan. He also added that the Ministry should be proud that the system adopted for discussing its strategic plan is greatly similar to that adopted by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, one of the greatest financial institutions around the world.

On her part, Ms. Nerman Al-Heeny stressed that the forum aims to revise the objectives set in 2017-2018 and to lay down an upcoming three-year strategy, noting that workshops organized by the ministry aim to come up with definite outcomes implemented within a definite timeframe, and to provide mechanisms for measuring them through all the ministry's sectors as well. She also added that the ministry follows a sustainable institutional mechanism unconditioned with specific employees or any incumbent ministers.

Next forums to be held will be attended by employees of medium management ranks so as to set an integrated plan featuring the participation of all the ministry's staff. This present forum comes within a series of forums scheduled to finalize the preparation of the complete strategic plan by next March.

Ms. Eman Al-Qony, executive advisor for institutional development, said that given the success witnessed in strategic development, the ministry embarked on preparing the ministry's comprehensive strategic plan based on a scientific approach called "governmental card for balanced performance" for strategic planning, supervision and assessment. PESTEL approach will also be employed for analyzing external factors affecting the ministry's performance and for detecting points of weakness and strength learnt from previously held forums. Lately, several meetings have been held with central departments in order to revise the ministry's objectives in light of its new assignments as well as to propose solutions and reach realistic outcomes of the current challenges from a collective point of view based on the ministry's strategic plan, she noted.

Mr. Emad Awad, head of accounts and financial directorates sector, stressed that this forum is considered a new approach that established a scientific basis for the ministry's performance, and raised staff's awareness of time management and got them informed with the work nature of other sectors for realizing work integration.

Major General Abdul Raouf Al-Ahmady, head of the Egyptian Mint Authority, noted that this forum is a means of acquaintance and connection for different employees and leaders at the Ministry of Finance, and workshops helped in creating constructive interaction of their visions and ideas.

Mr. Khaled Nofal, deputy minister of finance for administrative and technical development, confirmed that forums of this nature are a continuity to the Ministry's path towards adopting different opinions and realizing interaction among different sectors, and will yield soon thier fruitful results .

Dr. Shrief Hazem, minister of finance advisor for engineering affairs, stressed the importance of establishing a unified vision based on Egypt's vision 2030, and of charting a work plan with definite time schedule that be revised regularly.

In the same context, Mr. Ehab Khatab, head of the internal revision unit; Mr. Mohamed Niyazi, head of the central department of municipals; Mr. Mohamed Al-Sobky, head of the central department for general budgets; and Mr. Mohamed Abdul Fattah, head of general budget sector; Mr. Saaid Abdul Rahman, head of the central department for accounts and the central account unit; Ms. Samia Hussein, head of Real Estate Taxation Authority; and Mr. Hemat Al-Sayed, head of the general secretariat sector, all reiterated same ideas and hailed the role of forum in establishing common grounds among all the Ministry's sectors and departments.