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00:00The termination of the debt and the duration of the investigation period.
00:04A plan set by Egypt to manage the public debt,
00:07and a decrease of at least 80% of the total local income by 2027.
00:14The termination of the debt is about three years now,
00:18to what is more than five years in June 2028.
00:22A plan that focuses on reducing short-term expenses
00:26and turning them into medium and long-term expenses
00:29and diversifying the sources of funding in a larger way
00:32to include green bonds and bonds,
00:35in addition to traditional tools with low costs,
00:39which aims to reduce pressure on the government balance sheet
00:42and distribute the cost of the debt over longer periods of time.
00:46We must take into account that the duration of the Egyptian debt
00:50or the medium term of the Egyptian debt is not a goal in itself,
00:53it is a tool that I use to avoid the risks of increasing interest rates.
00:59The important thing is that when I come to do a restructuring of the debt,
01:05I have to look at the tools that I will use,
01:09how I will re-design it,
01:12in accordance with the current debtors or borrowers,
01:17because there is a big difference in the nature of the current debtors.
01:22It is true that the latest financial bonds could help reduce the financial pressure on Egypt,
01:27in addition to allocating half of the program of proposals to reduce the debt,
01:31but the escalation of geopolitical tensions in the region
01:34and the increase of the risks of fluctuating interest rates
01:37and the subsequent increase in borrowing costs
01:39may seem, in some people's opinion,
01:41detrimental to the Egyptian government
01:43in its journey to reduce the general debt rates.
01:46We want to transform from a crisis management network to a risk management network.
01:49In the case of a specific risk management network,
01:51there will be future expectations,
01:53specifically for dollar bonds.
01:55As a state, I can deal with this issue,
01:58especially when I take the part of the debt
02:00and start to transform it into investment projects.
02:02This will mean that I will start to reduce the interest rates
02:06by increasing the interest rates in the Middle East.
02:10This is the second part that I want to focus on.
02:12We always want to start dealing with the current dollar gain
02:17through projects,
02:19and work on projects on the ground that have dollar gains.
02:24Government data indicate
02:26that the total foreign debt to Egypt
02:28reached $168 billion by the end of 2023,
02:33and that about 80% of this debt will last for a long time.
02:37Egypt therefore aims to manage the debt
02:40with what guarantees the duration of its life
02:42and the duration of the receivables,
02:44based on medium and long-term issuances
02:47and towards low-cost financing tools
02:51in addition to reducing the need for fast financing.
02:54Farouk Youssef, CMC Arabia, Cairo.