Your Excellency, welcome to this important platform.
In a few days, you will be submitting the Government's program
to be endorsed and hence
granting the Government the motion of confidence or no-confidence.
First, I'd like you to tell us about some features of that program
and the priorities set by the Government to certain issues
related to the Egyptian citizens.
In the Name of God. First I'd like to thank
The United Arab Emirates for this gracious invitation
and for hosting us and for this valuable summit.
With regards to the Government's program,
there are 3 chapters or 3 main sections to talk about.
First, the challenges
which Egypt faces at the current phase.
The first challenge is related to the Egypt's national security.
With regards to Egypt's national security, there's a domestic challenge
that has to do with terrorist attacks and extremism.
There's a foreign challenge as a result for what's happening in the region
as well as extremism.
And Egypt's border and what happens there
East and West.
There's also an economic challenge
because it's an integral part of Egypt's national security.
That's the first challenge, as for the second challenge
it's continuing the democratic process in Egypt.
During the current phase we have achieved the 3 entitlements
by amending the constitution and issuing the new constitution,
then the Presidential elections and now we have a Parliament
which is working and will play its role
in the democratic process.
The third challenge is the economic challenges.
Outlining the desired growth rates,
dealing with unemployment and the budget deficit,
the payment balance deficit and the balance of trade deficit,
as well as attracting international, local and Arab investments
during the next phase.
There's also achieving growth rates and inclusive growth
Whose effect the citizens can actually feel.
Economic growth could be achieved without affecting the citizens.
Our goal is to achieve that growth in a way the citizens could feel
and to spread all over Egypt.
The last challenge is continuing Egypt's leading role in the region
and its interaction with the region and playing this role
and supporting all Arab countries
with the current situation in the region.
We may have time to talk about some of the regional issues,
but since our time is limited I'd like to focus on internal affairs.
The challenges that Your Excellency talked about
require the Egyptian citizens' trust in the Government.
Do the Egyptian citizens today trust their Government?
Because this Government will at least achieve a part of the things
they aspired to achieve after the January 25th Revolution.
One of the important themes in this summit
is the citizen's happiness. What can the Egyptian Government do
at this stage to give the citizens the feeling that they achieved something?
The main concepts the Egyptian citizens are concerned with
and which influenced them greatly in the previous phase
are: education, healthcare and services in general.
During the previous period
the governmental institutions weren't working economically.
The services offered to the citizens weren't offered at their real value.
And they were partially subsidized.
The result was that these services and that infrastructure
started to deteriorate
and the citizens no longer received the services with the desired quality
or the quality they were seeking.
Consequently, that had an adverse effect
and it continues to have it.
What we're seeking to achieve in the next phase is to work
on improving the services in the first place
as the Government's program revolves around the Egyptian citizen,
the poor citizens and those with low income.
We must work on improving the services especially education,
healthcare, transportation and housing.
All of these concern the citizens. Also, sanitation.
Our program also aims to achieve results
in the short term.
We're not talking about 5 or 10 years,
we aim to achieve positive results so soon
that the citizens will notice the change in 3 years,
which means we are on the right track
and that we're doing well.
During the reform process of the services, the cost of services
the value and the improvement of services,
in order to cover the increasing population.
There must also be programs
that are concerned with social justice
and concerned with supporting the poor citizens and those with low income
in order to compensate or create balance
between economic reform and social justice.
As you pointed out, Your Excellency, the citizens
not only in Egypt but in any country in the world
want to see tangible results on the ground.
And the Egyptian citizens as you said in the introduction
have endured that difficult transition period
and now they want fast, tangible results.
What will the Government do differently to achieve that?
I mean achieving fast results in some sectors at least
so that the citizen would feel that something came out of these changes.
In the meantime, we have an ambitious project for 1 million residential units
for people with low income
in the next 5 years, that's one of the major projects.
We're working to enhance the sanitation services in Egypt
as to cover all parts of the country.
We also want that service to reach the rural areas
as only 15% of Egyptian villages have access sanitation.
We seek to increase that to 50% by the end of the 3- year period.
That's very ambitious.
We've also achieved noticeable improvement in the field of energy
during the last year,
as we added new sources of energy and solved the problem of power cuts.
We also seek to improve transportation services
with regards to railways
as well as road transportation and public transportation.
We also have another ambitious program which we seek to achieve
with regards to medical insurance
and it's supposed to be completed in 5 to 6 years
and to cover all the Governorates.
We won't start with all the Governorates, but some of them,
and then it will be extended to cover all the Governorates of Egypt.
That's what we seek to achieve in the next phase, with God's will.
Of course, that will require big investments
as well as a governmental program and funding by the Government.
We must find different funding alternatives.
The private sector will play a big role
in implementing these projects and achieving high growth rates
during the coming years,
as we can't work without the private sector in the next phase.
Observers of the Egyptian situation have this impression,
which could be partially true or not,
that anything related to the public sector or the Government
suffers from bureaucracy to a great extent
as well as bloating.
It might be a kind of corruption. Do you think that impression is true?
And how could this be overcome?
Surely, there's a lot of truth in that.
And of course, we must face the truth.
But I want to say that corruption isn't as simple as bribery and such acts,
it also means halting projects or discontinuing projects,
that's another kind of corruption,
and so is not solving the problems of investors directly ad quickly,
as it affects the national economy.
That's also another kind of corruption.
Surely enough, the previous Governments didn't solve the issue of bureaucracy
in Egypt in the previous phase.
We seek to improve our performance in the coming phase.
We have an ambitious e-Government program.
We also have an ambitious program that we're working on
regarding the one-counter concept and offering services to investors.
We're seeking to improve that service significantly.
We also aim to change the way these services are offered,
which will be through an e-portal to make it easier for the citizen,
and so we could steer clear from bureaucracy and from overlapping
between the different Governmental authorities.
Another important thing is to have only one entity in charge of the activity.
and not to have overlapping of authorities.
For example, when it comes to industrial development, there must be one entity
which the committee for industrial development, they'll be in charge of it.
Not the local committees or any other sectors overlapping with it.
This will facilitate decision-making and let them get on with the work.
Another main theme of this summit is the future.
How does Egypt prepare for the future? What about the future Governments?
And the youth are a basic part of the future.
The issue of youth empowerment, those young people who were
the momentum behind the changes that Egypt witnessed after the Revolution.
What role do the youth play today in terms of planning and implementation?
Some people have been joking lately that
all the Governments after the revolution were aging Governments.
What role do the youth play in the executive apparatus
and in the mechanism of decision-making in Egypt?
Actually, I will say that the current Parliament
has an unprecedented percentage of youth.
In the Parliament? What about the Government?
In the current Parliament.
We can't say that we have much youth empowerment in the Government.
That's the truth.
But we work with the private sector
and the youth in the private sector have a very influential role
in the current phase, like they had in the previous phase
and like they will in the future, with God's will.
We've also started to enlist the help of young people in the Government
as highly reliable experts in different fields,
such as the economy.
So, I think the next phase will witness more
participation by the youth in the Government's activities and programs.
Moreover, there's an initiative by the President
to empower the youth by training 500 young men and women
on the latest programs in management and economy.
That program won't just be available for those 500 young people,
the curriculum will also be made available for more young people.
By the way, 60% of the Egyptian population are under 25.
- That's right. - Then, the issue of the youth
- must be a priority. - Of course, an unemployment too.
Let's take the remaining time to talk about
the issue of the foreign investment environment.
There was an important economic conference held in Sharm Al-Sheikh
and it was highly popularized.
Can you tell us the results of that conference?
Many promises were made there, how many of them were fulfilled?
The other thing is, what makes Egypt an attractive environment for investments?
As an investor, why would I go to Egypt
instead of going to China, India, Malaysia or any other country?
Many projects were implemented during that period,
such as projects in power generation and power networks.
There were also many projects in the field of gas and petrol
wit multi-national companies that are starting to be implemented.
Why invest in Egypt?
Egypt is a state of institutions,
that's is something established in Egypt.
We have a very advanced banking system.
We have institutions that are still active.
An advanced infrastructure to a certain extent
and one that can be improved.
A strategic location, a large consumer market with 90 million citizens.
Investments opportunities in a diverse economy,
from tourism to oil industry and power generation
as well as construction and housing.
Also, in services and infrastructure.
The Egyptian economy is highly diverse
which can attract more investments.
Moreover, we're working to reform the system
on attracting investments in the current phase
with a group of colleagues in order to achieve
the one-counter concept.
Okay, we have around a minute left but Mr. Elias took more time
so we can take an extra minute.
The security challenge in Egypt today is a vital one,
and one that affects appeal for foreign investments.
What will the Government do in this regard?
It's also a huge concern for the Egyptian citizens
who consider the security challenge a vital one.
What will you do in the coming period with regard to that?
There are some attacks that take place in some areas but they are very limited.
But we must move, not only in the military sense
or by taking action on the ground
but we should also pay attention to the religious discourse,
because that's very important.
I think that neglecting the religious discourse in the previous phase
is what led us to this situation in Egypt and the region
and to the extremism that we have now.
So, we must pay attention to religious discourse in the coming phase
and that's also a top priority for the Government
in the current as well as the coming phase, with God's will.
But I'd like to assure all Egyptians and all the people who love Egypt
in the Arab countries and in the Gulf,
that Egypt is safe,
and that we're dealing with terrorism in a very practical way
and hopefully this phenomenon will come to an end very soon.
Thank you so much, Mr. Sherif Ismail,
The Prime Minister of Egypt, for being with us today
- at the World Government Summit - Thank you.
Thank you all.