President El Sessi's Achiements

Egypt celebrated its 6th National Revolution of June 30, 2014 that led to the removal of the late president Morsi.

The revolution led to the creation of a new agenda of economic growth and development.

It will be difficult to provide a complete survey of what has been accomplished under President El Sessi, since 2014.

I would like to begin this post by saying that President El Sessi is God gift to Egypt. This statement might be sarcastically viewed by some. But, one cannot deny the President’s accomplishment during the past five years. It is a fact recognized worldwide.

The director of the International World Bank, during a visit to Egypt in 9/3/2019, stated that Egypt’s economic and social growth, during the past five years, has been very impressive. She further said that Egypt’s economic development should be used as an international model to other nations. Furthermore, several heads of states, such as the US, France, Germany, China and Russia, have publicly recognized Egypt’s successful economic development.

I would to enumerate the latest achievements of the Egyptian government:

1.    Development of infrastructure, where more than 5000 KM of new paved highways were constructed, as well as over 1100 new bridges. The new roads connect all governorates. This allows better transportation and communication among the new constructed industries. This development encouraged foreign investors are to invest in Egypt.

2.    Construction of new sewage system in many villages and cities, and the renovation of the old system.

3.    Recycling of sewer water to be used for drinking and irrigation.

4.    Desalination of sea water for communities along the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Four desalination plants are being implemented along the Mediterranean Sea in Sinai.

5.    Reclaiming 1.5 million feddans for cultivation.

6.    Building of 1300 green houses on 10,000 feddans for the cultivation of vegetables, 75,000 trained farmers were added to the working force. The government pointed out that the green houses would feed 21 million people. The produces are sold to the public to lower prices that the produces in the market. Some were also exported.

7.    Fish farms were created. More than 1100 fish farms were connected to the Red Sea water to raise fish. This has been a very successful project. The fish are used for national consumption as well as for export.

8.    Increasing the production of electrical power which doubled in three years from 15,000 KW to 29,000 KW. The German government stated publicly that no country in the world could double the productivity of its electrical power in three years like Egypt. Furthermore, solar panels as well as wind mills were built. The two sources generate 20% of the electrical power in Egypt. Lines were built to transfer electrical power to Cyprus and Greece. In the future it will be transferring power to other parts of Europe as well. Electrical lines have been also built to transfer power to Sudan.

9.    Building a second Suez Canal parallel to the old one. Instead of a one-way traffic there is now a two-way traffic. This huge project was completed in one year. The revenue per year has exceeded $5 billion per year. The addition of the new canal saved 12 to 18 hours for ships waiting to sail North or South.

10.Wide expansion of new towns, 21 were built in various governorates to accommodate population increase and industrial developments. New homes for middle- and low-income families were built. The majority of slums around big cities have been removed. Furthermore, tow new cities were built.

a.    Al Madinah al Idariyah or the New Government Capital which is located 36 KM from Cairo. Government offices and the Egyptian Parliament will move in to the new capital in 2020.

b.    The new city of Al Alamain is built West of Alexandria along the Mediterranean Sea shores. The city has the most beautiful beaches. It could become a center of attraction for tourists, summer and winter. The architectural design of both cities is quite impressive.

c.     One fourth of the Egyptian labor is employed in this sector of the economy.      

During the past five years the Egyptian government encouraged and invited foreign oil companies to drill in Egypt’s water space and lands. This led to the discovery of natural Gaz in the Mediterranean water. This discovery is the largest in the region. As a result, Egypt became self-sufficient in natural Gaz as of 2019. It uses to cost the Egyptian government over $3 billion per year to import. This discovery let the government to expand its chemical industries. Egypt is now classified as the largest exporter of natural Gaz in the Mediterranean region. Furthermore, there was new discovery of oil in the Western desert where some wells began to produce oil to meet some of the needed demands for oil. Some foreign companies began also to drill along the shores of the Red Sea.

The picture is promising. According to the government prediction, Egypt will be self- sufficient in oil production by the year 2022.

The office of the Egyptian Prime Minister issued a detailed report about the oil discovery and the accomplishments of the Prime Minister of Oil in the past five years (9/6/2019). It stated that the Thaher field of natural Gaz has a reserve capacity of 30 trillion  Cubic feet. As of August 2019 the field production was 7.2 billion Cubic feet  per day.

The export during 2019 was estimated at $11.6 billion.

In addition the government connected 10 million residential units with natural Gaz during the same year.

The International Organization (OPEC) recognized Egypt’s achievement in the production of oil and natural Gaz during the past five years. It pointed out that Egypt is becoming an international center for the production and export of energy.

11.During the last two years, the government began to focus on the national health condition of the public. A program referred to as the ‘one hundred million health care’ where people are checked for Virus C. Presently more than 70 million people have been checked. Those found affected by Virus C were treated for free.

A second health program was recently initiated to educate young women about breast cancer and to be checked at no cost.

Furthermore, a National Health Care Program was initiated by the government, in 2019,  and implemented in five Governorates. It will be a National System in the near future.  

Recently. President El Sessi urged the government to review ‘Family Planning and Birth Control Program.’ This program was actually initiated in the early 1950’s. Previous presidents have all stresses the importance of such program, but nothing was achieved. The population increase of 2.5 million per year, is the most difficult problem facing the Egyptian government.

The failing to imply the Family planning and birth control program is attributed to more than one factor.

a.    The misinterpretation of religion by illiterate village Imams, who do not understand the content of the Quran. This occurs despite the support for family planning by the Al Azhar religious leaders. Unfortunately, 40%of women in villages are illiterate and follows the  saying of village Imams.

b.    Poverty plays a role in not accepting the principle of family planning. Adult men and women give birth to a large number of children thinking they will in the future will provide them economic security.

c.     The negative impact of government subsidies which started in the 1950”s to help the poor. According to the Egyptian government statistics more than 70 million Egyptian have the subsidy card. Do the 70 million really need such economic support?

In my opinion the government ought to use the reward and punishment principle as part of the Family Planning and Birth Control Policy. This has been implemented in some countries and was successful.

In general, the Egyptian government total accomplishment during the past five years is very impressive. Such accomplishment is recognized internationally. The Egyptian economic growth has been classified as the third highest world- wide.

The following factors led to such success:

1.    Increase in foreign investment from 2.2 billion in 2012 to 9 billion in 2019.

2.    The rate of economic growth moved from 2% in 2012 to 5.6% in 2019.

3.    Unemployment, which was 13% in 2012 dropped to 8% in 2019.

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