Prime minister delineates future image of Egypt

In an interview with Al-Ahram newspaper, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid spoke about the march of national action and visions of what could be done in future achieve the aspired revival in the upcoming stage.

Ebeid spoke about achievements made by the government and efforts to meet citizens ambitions. He laid emphasis on political and economic stability enjoyed by Egypt during the rule of President Mubarak.

Ebeid said Egypt is exerting efforts for restructuring its economy, cutting down its debts, modernizing its utilities, educating its sons and supplying the countryside with electricity.

He also said that Egypt is enjoying a social umbrella, adding that international establishments have underlined the strong performance of the Egyptian economy. "Thanks to President Mubarak's wisdom and leadership, investment in Egypt is privileged with widescale incentives," Ebeid said.

Ebeid said Egypt managed to cut down foreign debt by 700 million dollar and minimized the gap between exports and imports by 2 billion dollar during the past nine months compared to the corresponding period last year.

He said the government has paid L.E. 8.2 billion worth of entitlements owed to contractors and suppliers for works completed up to June 1999.

He added that the government has also secured another L.E. 7 billion of entitlements for works completed up to the end of last June.

Ebeid said the government is preparing for launching new projects for citizens in the fields of education, drinking water, health, and roads that will cost about L.E. 15 billion, adding that as of next year, Egypt will start the implementation of amajor development plan called for by President Mubarak.

He said the plan, which will run for 15 years, aims at developing markets, integrating into world markets and lifting restrictions on trade.

The prime minister said the government has already 14 legislations that will be consecutively discussed by the Cabinet and then submitted to President Mubarak for referral to the new People's Assembly. He said these legislations are designed to reactivate investment climate and settle conflicts.

He stressed the importance of establishing a technological base on Egypt's soil for enhancing development process, asserting that the government has taken many strides in this domain and offered much incentives to technological activities.

Ebeid said the government would dispatch envoys to all technology-exporting countries for explaining incentives given to investments in the field of information industry.

He also said the government has launched a smart village project, adding the first will be located at the first phase of Cairo-Alexandria desert road.

Ebeid said the year 2002 will witness the declaration of new oil and natural gas discoveries on the north coast. He said these discoveries will put Egypt among natural gas-exporting countries.

Banking Sector

As far as banking sector is concerned, the prime minister said deposits in banks are secured, adding national banks are capable of covering any potential losses. He said businessmen who repay their loans to banks will be capable of fulfilling their obligations.

He spoke about the real reasons behind dollar crisis, and said that many world developments have affected Egypt's resources of the foreign exchange and reactivated demand on dollar.

Faced with low supply of dollar, Ebeid said, the government had two options: either to let dollar exchange rate jump to an unknown extent or to let it move in a realistic pace, adding that the government has chosen the last option being the more secure one.

He said there are no restrictions on the freedom of citizens in dealing with their funds, adding the Central Bank of Egypt has put no restrictions on withdrawing money from banks.

Elections

Ebeid said the People's Assembly elections have brought about new faces, adding that in these elections citizens rejected any linkage between religion and politics.

He said citizens rejected fanatics and gave their consent to the center represented by the National Democratic Party in order to maintain political, economic stability and reform programmes which were carried out during the past years.

Ebeid said citizens said no to veterans who kept away from their constituencies or those who failed to offer services to citizens in the past years.

He added that the government will carry out many projects for generating job opportunities for youth, through rehabilitation programmes and training centers in various governorates. He said the government also seeks to attract foreign investments and to open new projects for products manufactured by the foreign companies operating in Egypt.