Nazif to US Today: Egypt serious about democracy
Egypt, Politics, 5/18/2005

Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif said that Egypt is serious about applying democracy. Nazif, who is visiting the United States this week, said: "Nobody would disagree with President George Bush's call for deepening democracy."

However, Nazif said the US role should be that of an adviser. "Change is happening, but the pace is up to us," he said.

Interviewed by the USA Today newspaper published yesterday, Nazif said relations between Egypt and the United States have at times seen differences.

"Egyptians are very kind people by nature. And kind people are easy to influence. Even if they think the US today is not as nice as it should be, they still have hopes for the relationship in many ways. That is why I am here. To make sure we mend this image."

On the coming elections, Nazif said: "The challenge is on the leaders of, the opposition parties including Mr. Nour and others. Let them show their material. Let them come in with their programs. All we hear from them always is, "we need more democracy." Now let's hear what they are going to do about unemployment. What are you going to 'do about the budget deficit? What are you going to do about our pension reform system? That's what the Egyptians want to hear."

Asked about the banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Nazif said: "We will not allow political parties based on religion. Not any countries would do that. Would you like to see in Egypt a party for Islam and a party for Christianity and a party for lslam and a party for Judaism ? That's what they stand for. How can we allow that?"

Nazif said there is no standard for democracy. No one size fits all solutions. Turkey, for example, might see this as a plus. We don't.

Asked about economic reforms and continuing complaints by Egyptians, that although Egypt had floated the pound and increased privatization, yet a lot of them still didn't feel any improvement, Nazif said: "I understand that people want to see results.

We came in with a very important objective in mind. To restore confidence in the government. People want to see their government as forthcoming about their problems and how they want to solve them. We came in the first day.

I said, 'Listen we're going to do a lot of reforms. Some of them are tough and in some cases, it will take a longer time than you expect. Don't expect to see results in the street for 18-24 months.

Nazif said Egypt is now open for business. "Last year, the total foreign investment was dlrs 408 million, very meager.

In nine months, since we came to office in July, till March, that number exceeded a billion. That's not our target yet.

Our target dlrs 3 billion per year and I think we're well on our way.

Things are moving. The Cairo-Alexandria stock exchange was ranked number one in the world in February. Today it's number two,"he added.

He said investment revenues are mostly coming in from tourism. Also oil and gas exploration, which is not, included in dlrs 1 billion.

On the privatization programme, Nazif said:

"The Privatization program was stalling in Egypt but we have taken very bold steps, Remittances from privatization in those nine months is four, times what it was in the last five years.

We're selling cement some banks are up for grabs now. So the macro side of things is" starting to show, And in some cases, even the people on the street felt it.

They felt it in more jobs coming in. We're seeing 70-80% increases in the number and size of ads for private sector jobs.

When we came in, we stopped hiring for government, a very unpopular decision," he added. Asked about the number of people in the Mogamma (a huge government building in downtown Cairo,), Nazif said: 20,000 and in a year I may close it down. I am actually thinking of turning into a hotel.

Answering a question on his concerns regarding the re- emergence of terror incidents in Egypt recently, Nazif said that investigations showed that the incidents lacked organization.

"The incident in Taba was mostly people from the area targetting Israeli tourists, the incident in Khan el Khalili (a traditional market in Cairo) was a family of young Egyptians that worked independently but were obviously under the influence of extremist thinking."

The premier said it is something that should not be taken lightly. As you know, our economy depends on tourism.

"Thank God, so far, there is no effect on the tourism industry."

Answering a question on lifting the emergency law and on some people saying that you would take the last.

Incidents as a pretext for not lifting the emergency law, Nazif said this is something on the agenda.

"But if we are going to lift it, we need an alternative. An anti-terrorist act like your patriot act. When the US got subjected to terrorism, it acted with a law. That's what we did. why are people blaming us for that? he added.

Nazif, meanwhile, said Egypt is serious on applying democracy but is also serious, at the same time, on safeguarding its safety and security.

Previous Stories:
  On the new constitutional change in Egypt   (5/11/2005)
  More demonstrations, acts of detentions in Egypt   (5/11/2005)
  Egypt: ties with US strategic   (5/10/2005)

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