Mubarak stresses need to modernize Egyptian industry
Egypt, Economics, 6/26/2001

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Tuesday said that Egypt's signing Monday of a partnership agreement with the European union is meant to render export operations smooth and give an impetus to Egypt's modernisation in various aspects.

President Mubarak expressed hope that" this association would succeed in upgrading our industry otherwise it will lag behind."

This association took a long period of negotiations and we are going to see whether we are capable of forming communities with other countries or not, president Mubarak said in statements during inauguration of el Warraq bridge.

The president urged businessmen to work continuously in order to develop their industries.

"If we do not upgrade our industry, we will be lost and nobody will ever buy it," he said.

He noted that what is going on in the lands of Egypt is progress: development of industry and agriculture and creation of job opportunities for citizens.

He stressed Egypt's keenness on achieving industrial development by all means available, pinpointing interest in small-sized enterprises.

What made Japan were small-sized enterprises, said the president.

On some campaigns launched by western mass media against Egypt based on untrue facts, President Mubarak said that we are going to remain target of such campaigns as long as we remain a pioneer country.

All these campaigns want us to bow our heads and establish a tailored democracy he noted but stressed that he is not one of the tailored democracy men.

As regards the peace process, mubarak said it needs a lot of efforts because it has been complicated since 1949 and will take time in negotiations to ease the violence.

On Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's first call after coming to power with him, president Mubarak said the Palestinians wanted that.

He (Sharon) called me and I talked with him. I didn't call anybody. I hope this would relieve the public opinion. I hope all parties would move ahead on the path of peace. Peace is inevitable and whoever evades peace will be over, the president added.

Answering a query on the objectives of US secretary of state Colin Powell's visit to the region, the president said "we talked a lot with them. There should be positive moves on the part of the United States towards this issue as it has many interests in the region which will be affected if it does not help reach solutions for the violence that might turn into terrorism."

"We do not want to backward and that is why we should consider a just solution that leads us to the right road," he said.

"Here in Egypt we consider the public opinion. If we see that the public opinion is taking the wrong direction, we explain and convince it to rectify its attitude and if we see its direction is right, we adopt the people views," said the president.

On whether the US moves are considered a change in Bush's policies announced upon assuming the presidential responsibilities about the notion to leave the two parties reach an understanding together, Mubarak said Sharon went to the united states to convey his own concepts but I went there and explained the situation.

"There must be an active US presence to help reach peace otherwise we will all be affected," he added.

Previous Stories:
  Industrial modernization programs run in parallel   (6/25/2001)
  LE 122 billion investments to modernize private sector in 10 years   (6/24/2001)
  Training programs to improve private sector performance   (6/24/2001)

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