El-Said said that Egypt had been able to achieve a great leap in the field of infrastructure She said the state had paid great attention to the transport sector, including the road and bridge network CAIRO: Egyptian Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said said that the state’s increased spending on roads and bridges since 2018 has contributed to a 44 percent decrease in the number of deaths due to road accidents in 2020. El-Said said that Egypt had been able to achieve a great leap in the field of infrastructure, especially in transport sector services. Egypt’s classification in road quality improved, rising 90 places according to the Global Competitiveness Report. It jumped from 118th position in 2014 to 28th position in 2019, among the sub-indicators that helped to raise the competitiveness index for Egypt. El-Said added that investment in roads and bridges over the past four years had in the past two years led to a decrease in road accident deaths by 5 percent in 2018-2019 and by 44 percent in 2019-2020. She explained that with increased investment in roads and bridges to 97 percent from 2018 to 2020, the number of road accident deaths fell to 46 percent. El-Said said that the state had paid great attention to the transport sector, including the road and bridge network. Investments in roads and bridges amounted to 14 billion Egyptian pounds in 2018, bringing the proportion of investments to 26 billion Egyptian pounds in 2019 and 28 billion Egyptian pounds in 2020. This contributed to the decrease in the number of deaths caused by road accidents, which reached 12,000 in 2019 and 7,000 deaths in 2020, compared to 13,000 in 2018. The minister stressed the importance of the transport sector due to its connection with services that citizens directly experienced through national projects for roads, bridges, subway and railways, the projects of the Egyptian Authority for Maritime Safety and other services provided by the sector. The aim was to provide a safe transport system that achieved sustainable development goals, she said.