Mrs. Mubarak advocates principles of right, freedom; demographics addresses
Egypt, Politics, 9/7/2002

National progress hinges on manpower development, which is the ideal for investment, Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak told a Cairo conference yesterday. Addressing the first working session of the Youth and Population Problem Conference, Mrs. Mubarak called on the nation's youth to exert their best efforts to achieve a better future and a stable life.

This life, in which sufferings disappear, makes everyone happy and content, she added. Stability can only be achieved when the values of tolerance, respecting the other's views, human rights and democracy are fully maintained and appreciated, Mrs. Mubarak told participants of the three-day event, organized by the Ministry of Health. Mrs. Mubarak expressed her happiness to meet with young people upon whom Egypt pins high hopes for a better world, where the principles of right, goodness, freedom and justice are rife.

These principles and values, which all religions defend and promote, have shaped the march of human civilization over the ages, she added. Following Mrs. Mubarak's speech, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid addressed the conference participants about the problem of population increase in Egypt, its negative impacts, as well as the government's programs to overcome it.

This problem poses a serious threat to the future of the national developmental process and threatens the government's abilities to achieve a better standard of living for the people, Ebeid said.

It also has a negative impact on the nation's demographic distribution map, as the majority of people are concentrated in a limited geographical area, he added. Consequently, Ebeid explained, the people living in this congested area(s) do not feel the benefits of development or the government's accomplishments.

In the meantime, overpopulation has a very negative impact on the people, in terms of behavior and creative and innovative abilities, the Prime Minister said. The government, he added, realized the magnitude of this problem and took the initiative towards reducing and coping with its negative impacts.

The population growth rates exceeded all expectations during the last century and that increase posed a serious threat to the developmental process, he continued. Therefore, the government had designed an ambitious long-term plan which aims to cope with this problem, in order to achieve a higher standard of living for the people, the Prime Minister said.

The plan incorporated mobilizing all the available national resources, proper use of state funds, applying scientific means for manpower planning and development, as well as reducing birth rates.

All these components, Ebeid said, were designed to increase the economic growth rates and improve the standard of living. Facts indicate that population rates have slowed down in Egypt as the birth rates dropped from 40 per thousand to 26 per thousand, in the past ten years, he added. The same period also witnessed a decrease in fertility rates, due to an increase in the use of family planning/birth control methods, he said.

Following the Prime Minister's speech, Health Minister Awad Taj Eddin addressed the conference.

In his speech he identified the dimensions of the problem and the steps, which have been approved by the government, to cope with it.

He said that the government, in compliance with the President's directives, has been paying close attention to the population increase problem since 1998. During the past 20 years, Taj Eddin said, Egypt has witnessed a population increase, that is equivalent to the increase in the population of five European countries and nine Arab states.

At present, young people constitute the wide base of Egypt's population, he said, adding that the population increase was the outcome of many cultural values that need to be addressed.

"Old social traditions, like having too many children or early marriages are parts of these challenges that need our attention to combat them, he said. However, he praised the outcome of the family planning and child-spacing programs, which the Ministry has been implementing. Without these programs, Egypt's population would have reached 75 million in 2001, he told the conference.

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