President El-Sisi Meets the Prime Minister and Minister of Higher Education

Today, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with Prime Minister, Dr. Moustafa Madbouly, Minister of Higher Education and Acting Minister of Health and Population, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar and the President’s Advisor for Health and Prevention Affairs, Dr. Mohamed Awad Taj El-Din.

The Spokesman for the Presidency said the meeting followed-up on a multitude of presidential initiatives in the sectors of healthcare for the citizens, universities and scientific research.

President El-Sisi gave directives to develop a package of incentives for doctors and a financial system that shall increase the doctors’ income and improve their work environment, particularly in rare medical specialities. He also instructed providing special advantages to doctors working in remote areas and modify the entire system of assigning doctors.

The meeting also reviewed the status of the Coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic nationwide, the vaccination rates and the additional doses of vaccines currently available.

The meeting also reviewed the results of the application of the various presidential initiatives as part of the state’s efforts to improve public health under the umbrella of the 100 million health initiative. The discussions tackled the objectives achieved nationwide, particularly with regard to the treatment of Hepatitis-C virus, supporting the Egyptian women’s health, and ending waiting lists of critical cases. Around 1.2 million surgeries were performed in various critical and urgent specialities at a cost of around 11.6 billion pounds in 477 hospitals across all governorates of the republic. The World Health Organization lauded the impact and direct results of the initiative on improving the health and economic conditions of the Egyptian family. President El-Sisi directed to increase financial resources allocated for supporting the initiative by 600 million pounds, while increasing awareness programs in the media for the initiative’s targeted citizens to show them how to benefit from the initiative in an easy and smooth manner in order to alleviate the suffering of the patients.

The President also stressed the need to ensure the sustainability of the results achieved within the context of the initiative for the early detection and treatment of Hepatitis-C virus through the ongoing and early periodic examination. This aims to ensure the sustainability of the results achieved by the initiative for the current and future generations.

The President also followed-up on the presidential initiative for the support of women’s health, early detection of tumors and improving maternal and fetal health nationwide. President El-Sisi gave instruction to expedite the completion of all facilities and buildings of the New National Cancer Institute 500 500.

Developments pertinent to the status of implementing the comprehensive health insurance system were also presented, while reviewing next steps in this regard and the time frame for including other governorates in the system, in addition to touching on the challenges that arise and plans to overcome them. The President gave directives to ensure the sustainability of the flow of finances of the system for its success, in addition to the efficiency of health service providers.

The Spokesman for the Presidency added that Dr. Abdel Ghaffar also reviewed efforts to develop the scientific research system and research centers affiliated to the ministry across the country. The President gave directives to increase the number of qualified scientific researchers, with the aim of enhancing the cadres working in the educational centers and institutes affiliated to the Ministry of Higher Education and selecting them to meet the highest standard of professionalism to maximize the state's research capacity.

Developments of the presidential initiative "Future Technology 2050", which includes technological and modern sciences universities specialized in fields such as Artificial Intelligence, programming , financial inclusion and digital media, were also presented. The President gave directives to continue working on the final crystallization of the initiative due to its importance, especially with regard to cooperating with global partners with extensive experience in technology and electronics to implement the initiative, as well as the estimated cost and numbers of students involved.

The minister of higher education also presented the developments of a number of the most prominent national projects affiliated with the ministry, especially the National Academy of Mathematics, Zewail City for Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as public, private and technological universities. The President gave directives for the state to cover a percentage of the application fees for new students joining non profit public universities ,while continuing to provide scholarships to outstanding students.