Minister: Egypt has 5m civil servants and not enough chairs

Egypt Minister of Finance Mohamed Ma’it said the government cannot create new jobs but the private sector can.

“The government has five million employees who cannot even find a chair to sit on,” the minister said during a meeting of the parliamentary economic committee which was calling for greater investment in the country.

“In the previous period, the state was unable to invite investor without solving the infrastructure problems as well as problems on macro levels including hard currency, natural gas as well land and electricity and roads,” he said.

The state has made great progress in certain areas but some problems continue to exist, he added.

The World Bank announced yesterday that Egypt requires $675 billion of investment over the next 20 years to meet its infrastructure needs.

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