CAIRO — After more than half a year in the making, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi finally approved at the end of December a strategic program drawn up by the government that sets out the economic sectors from which the state plans to withdraw in the coming years, and those in which it intends to increase or reduce its involvement.

The State Ownership Policy document, which seeks to define the contours of public sector presence in the Egyptian economy, is primarily aimed at creating an attractive and conducive environment for the country's stagnant private sector to expand and attracting local and foreign investments, at a time when the nation is facing a deep economic crisis.

Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly stated during the presentation of the government’s plans in May that the goal is to double the private sector’s contribution to economic investments to 65%, from 30% in 2021. The final text, however, only states that the aim is to increase investments by 25%-30% and achieve an economic growth of 7%-9% that helps to create jobs.

The approval of the document came just two weeks after Cairo secured a new $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for a new set of reforms, including policies to unleash private sector growth by reducing the state footprint in the economy.