Development fruits to be reaped by all Egyptians
Egypt, Economics, 4/27/2000

In his address on the occasion of May Day, President Hosni Mubarak lauded the nation's workers for showing "understanding and ability to handle requirements of reform and its problems".

President Hosni Mubarak said that Egypt's economic reforms had been underpinned by due attention to social factors.

"I reiterate that we are committed that fruits of development are to be reaped by all categories of people, particularly the income-limited brackets," he added.

"We are committed to heeding social factors in every step and every decision we take."

Egypt has been pursuing successful economic reforms since the early 1990s underlined by deregulation and privatization.

"The masses of workers have been in the vanguard of the categories of people who have realized the goals of economic reform. They have been aware that reform holds the key to achieve real and radical progress, with the working class being among the prime beneficiaries," he said.

Mubarak reviewed the strides made by Egypt in all walks of life, including the construction of efficient infrastructure facilities and the provision of social welfare services to all people.

"Since the dawn of history, Egypt's workers have realized that their interests are closely connected to those of the nation and that their goals are completely identical to those of people," he told the massive gathering at the Cairo Conferences Center in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City.

"I have been keen that Egypt's workers be in the forefront of the beneficiaries of economic reform and the great progress process on which we have recently taken bold steps," he stressed.

Mubarak voiced hope that the living standards of all Egyptians would be improved and that "a tangible leap forward" in the quality of life for all Egyptians would be achieved. "We firmly believe that social justice is the basis of the legitimacy of the ruling system and that burdens of life should be fairly shared by all members of society," he added.

Mubarak said that in carrying out the privatisation program, full attention had been paid to safeguarding workers interests because development could not be balanced and continuous without taking into account social dimensions in tandem with economic aspects.

He put at over LE 389 billion the overall money spent over the past 18 years on basic services such as education, healthcare and housing services. "A record of LE 50 billion is earmarked for these services in the fiscal year budget 1999/2000," he remarked.

He said that investment in drinking water and sanitation schemes reached LE 43 billion in this year's budget, against LE 1.3 in 1981.

Mubarak said that the coming phase of economic reforms would be important with emphasis to be laid on technological development and the introduction of high technology in different state agencies side by side with the development of human resources.

Previous Stories:
  IMF mission lauds stability of Egyptian credit market   (4/26/2000)
  Mubarak to deliver political speech on Labor Day   (4/21/2000)
  US congressional delegation visits Egypt   (4/20/2000)

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