Cairo, Egypt (CNN) — Egypt launched the “National Strategy for Population and Development”, which aims to implement a program that balances population growth rates with the available resources in the country by educating citizens about the seriousness of high fertility rates without preventing the family’s right to determine the number of its children.
Representatives stressed the importance of working to control the population increase because it is “the most serious challenge facing the country and devouring any economic growth, as well as putting pressure on resources, with the re-planning of the labor force in Egypt in a way that positively affects the national economy.”
The population of Egypt increased from 10 million in 1950 to more than 105 million in 2023, and the average number of newborns in Egypt is 5,683 births per day, at a rate of 4 births every minute, and the large population increase puts pressure on the per capita share of the GDP, according to Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar.
Dr. Ayman Mohseb, a member of the House of Representatives and deputy head of the parliamentary body of the Al-Wafd Party, said, “The issue of population increase is the most prominent challenge facing Egypt in the current period, because it devours any increase in economic growth rates, especially in light of the limited resources and the repercussions of the global financial crises.” This affects the exaggerated rise in food prices, the growth of the import bill of basic food commodities, as well as the widening of the state budget deficit gap.
Each pound spent by the state on family planning provides 151.7 pounds ($4.91) of the cost of spending on basic services, divided between 74.1 pounds ($2.4) for education, 32.9 pounds ($1.06) for health, 28 pounds ($0.91) for housing, and 16.7 pounds. ($0.54) for the food subsidy system, according to statements by the Minister of Health and Population.
Mohseb added, in exclusive statements to “CNN in Arabic,” that “the danger is not in the population increase, but in reusing and effective planning of human wealth, to exploit it positively in the interest of the national economy, by providing training opportunities for the development of youth, with a greater focus.” On technical manpower to provide trained manpower that attracts investments from abroad and raises the level of competitiveness of the national industry.
During his participation in the World Conference on Population, Health and Development, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi affirmed, on Tuesday, that “procreation is complete freedom, but if this freedom is not regulated, it may cause a disaster for the state,” adding that “absolute freedom in the process of procreation for people who may not be aware The scale of the challenge is ultimately paid for by the state and society.
Ayman Muhassab stressed “the need for media awareness to correct misconceptions among families, especially in rural villages, about high fertility rates, while adjusting the demographics, so that the proportion of the population in work and production is greater than the proportion of young people of the age of dependency,” pointing to “the need to benefit from the economic benefits of Immigrants in the country by legalizing their legal status, and paying residency fees with external transfers.
According to official data, the fertility rates in rural areas are 3 times higher than urban ones, with the highest level in Upper Egypt governorates and the lowest level in urban governorates.
For her part, Dr. Rania Al-Jazairli, a member of the House of Representatives, said, “The population increase eliminates economic development first-hand, and it is also one of the most serious challenges facing the state at the present time, which requires the necessity of issuing bold decisions to limit the population increase,” suggesting ” Linking food commodity subsidies to the number of individuals, provided that it is applied to new families, and not retroactively, in addition to granting incentives to families who adhere to the policy of two children per family.
And last March, the Egyptian government approved saving 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($32.47) annually for each married woman with a maximum of two children, who deserve to be spent upon reaching the age of 45, with the aim of changing women’s motives regarding increased childbearing, and to achieve the state’s plan to control population growth. To improve services provided to citizens.
Al-Jazairly pointed out, in exclusive statements to “CNN in Arabic”, “the danger of the continuing population increase crisis putting pressure on the state’s resources,” citing “the government’s spending of huge funds to establish agricultural and educational projects over the past years, but the huge increase in the population contributed to an increase in The gap between the required and the supply of services,” pointing to “the need to increase media awareness of the danger of population increase, and to improve the demographic composition of families, which is reflected in the improvement of the Egyptian economy.”
Egypt has spent 10 trillion pounds ($323.3 billion) on national projects over the past nine years, in addition to that, it has spent 780 billion pounds ($25.2 billion) on commodity subsidies, and 169 billion pounds ($5.5 billion) on social protection programmes, according to the Minister of Health and Population. .
2023-09-05 21:06:35
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