CAIRO: Youm7 met with British Ambassador to Egypt James Watt last week. Ambassador Watt discussed visa regulations for Egyptians, British investments in Egypt, the difficulty of retrieving stolen Egyptian assets abroad, and the UK government's opinion on the so-called “Islamist threat” in Egypt. Q. Some of the questions we've gotten the most from our readers concern visas. Has the UK changed its visa policies regarding Egyptians post-revolution, and if so how have those regulations changed? A. The answer post-revolution is definitely not. But over the last several years we, like other countries, have been tightening our controls because too many people were abusing our visas in order to came asylum in our country really for economic reasons. So, it's true, it is harder now than it was say five years ago to get visas, it's a more complicated process, but it is still perfectly possible to get those visas as a student or as a visitor or as a business visitor, and we will do our best to make that process easy for you. We've got a visa center here which does the kind of front-end work for us, and we try to ensure that you get a high-quality service. We still think the British are among the best, probably better than the Shengen anyway, in terms of speed of issue. We issue the great majority of applications. Applications refused or sent away or whatever is well under 10%. Q. Have the numbers of Egyptians seeking visas changed since the revolution? A. Yes. Actually we had a huge surge of people seeking visit visas since the revolution. People are very welcome. We don't know quite why we had this surge. But we've been dealing with that. It did cause a backlog during the summer, and that's cleared now, and we're now operating very smoothly. Q. Do you have a specific percentage or numbers? A. Of how much it went up by? I would guess it rose about 20%, for a while. Q. And still about 90% of those requests were granted? A. Yes. On the whole, the quality of applicants we from Egypt is high. We have very few problems with applications from Egypt. Those who apply tend to be serious people with the right qualifications. Q. Have you discusses any adjustments or facilitations for businessmen, particularly after the revolution, to encourage more investment and more cooperation? A. Definitely. We are extremely keen. We have a full section which works all the time in promoting trade between the two countries and investment in both directions. There are some very big British investments here. Britain has been the biggest investor in Egypt for the last 3 years if not longer, and cumulatively has the biggest stock in Egypt of any country. The reason for this is mostly, but not entirely, to do with the oil and gas sector. You've got BP, British Gas and Shell, all of which have major onshore and offshore investments in oil and gas, contributing really very large sums to Egypt's wealth in terms of tax revenue and exports and so on. We're very proud of that record, it's an excellent record of cooperation. And not only have the companies come and explored and drilled and produced, but they trained a lot of Egyptians, a whole generation of young Egyptians from every level. From the beginning to the engineer right up to the top manager. And for example the chairman of BP Egypt is an Egyptian. That's typical of a lot of the investment, right to the top it's all an Egyptian. In addition to oil and gas, Vodafone UK and Vodafone Egypt – Egypt is its own company. They are an extremely successful company headed by an Egyptian. All the top managers are Egyptians. Vodafone are not only a very successful company commercially, but they're doing a great, what people used to call corporate social responsibility type thing. You've probably read about that collaboration (with an illiteracy program), of 35 million Egyptian pounds. So there's that, HSBC of course is a very big investor here… We have other companies buying a lot of food from Egypt, high-quality food, agricultural products for British supermarkets, it's an important part of Egypt's exports. Q. Do you expect more British investments? A. British investors really want to invest in Egypt. Despite the short-term uncertainties, they really see Egypt as a good medium and long-term prospect. Greatly underdeveloped. There are sectors where a lot more can be done to produce more. Agriculture for example. The entire industrial sector… Egyptian workers are good, have a good reputation, Egyptian prices are low, in energy and so on, Egypt should be a major industrial powerhouse. It is, in some sectors it is doing really well. That's where you can see the quality, the quality of what can be done in Egypt is visible in those productions, ceramics, and some of the textiles. There is a very important person in London called the Lord Mayor of London. He is not the mayor of the whole of London, he is the mayor of the city of London, which is the old historic city, which is the financial district. He is an extremely distinguished person. A new mayor is selected every year. He comes from a business background; in this case he's an engineer, a development engineer. He is brining here a business delegation of investors who want to look closely at the Egyptian market. About 20 member delegation. They are coming on Oct. 3-5. We're going do a lot of events with Egyptian businesses to encourage partnerships and pairings, and generally present the opportunities to investors. As I say, I think Egypt has great potential, and so do these people. We're very proud that Britain has already become Egypt's biggest investor, we are the most committed I think. Our companies, I was talking to some today, have long relations with Egypt and have no intention of pulling back or pulling out. They really are going to… they've got lots more to do here. Q. Following that line of thought, what problems have investors had because of the revolution, and have those problems been smoothed out over the past few months? A. I think British investors, like any foreign investor and like any Egyptian investor, have had some difficulties as a result of the slight administrative slowdown that happened as a result of the revolution. In some sectors there were delays in payments. But this was not a policy to deprive the companies, they were just delays. These problems have been negotiated successfully between the companies and the government. Things are going ahead. I think generally across the economy there has been a slowdown in decision making on granting of licenses and that sort of thing, so I think my message to Egyptian ministers or friends in Egypt generally is please, don't let this cause the economy harm. Please make sure that decisions are taken normally, that normal administrative decisions have to be taken and encouraged. Encourage economic activity. I don't need to say this in many cases because the ministers are very well aware that that's what's needed. Businessmen are the same. Q. Have governmental relations changes between the government of Egypt and the government of Britain, and if so, how? A. We had perfectly good relations with the previous government. We did not have very close relations with President Hosni Mubarak. We had perfectly correct and friendly relations, but it wasn't the kind of close personal relations that some other countries had. And in a way, this made it easier, I think, when the revolution came because we were able to declare immediately our support for the revolution and what it was aiming for. So our PM David Cameron did come here, as you know, he was the first senior politician from outside to come here. And he has kept a very strong interest in Egypt. He has got a very clear strategy for Britain, how we should try to help Egypt get through this difficult period of uncertainty and political change, without interfering of course, but simply being ready to provide any technical assistance we can. And above all of course, the financial assistance is needed. That financial assistance is mostly in the form of investments. Private sector investments are always going to be 100 times more important than any aid flows, so getting investment going, increasing investor confidence is a central part of our strategy for Egypt. And that's why we're brining in the Lord Mayor and his delegation and doing many other things. In addition to the investments of course there has to be some macroeconomic help, so Britain has pushed very hard in Europe and in the G8 for urgent attention to be given to what we call the Arab Spring countries. The Arab Spring - shorthand for Tunisia and Egypt. We wanted both countries to receive the maximum macroeconomic support in terms of donor assistance from the multilateral institutions mostly, the ones in Washington and the ones in Europe, but also the African Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and so on. There was a big announcement in the G8 summit in May, which amounts to a lot of money was available. The Egyptians have quite correctly said well actually none of that has shown up. It's not in the form of budgetary transfers. That's not how it works. Nobody's got that kind of money these days, especially with Europe in the debt crisis or sovereign debt crisis and the United States in a difficult position as well. So what is being offered is credits, for infrastructure projects. Inevitably these take a year or two to plan and get going at the best of times. There wasn't much being offered in the short term. In the short term what was being offered was access to, at a very cheap rate – 1.5% - to $3b IMF loans, which we thought was a very good offer. As you know your government decided not to take it up in June and I think some financial experts thought their missed an opportunity there, because if they had steadied peoples nerves and steadied the market in June, it would have been easier than to deal with the uncertainty. But they didn't take it, as you know, there has been a downward drift in the reserves. It's not critical and it can still be managed, but I think it's just an example of how a tiny action is always good. Timing is often as important as the quantities. So, we hope that Egypt will still consider these offers and I believe there is no objection to Egypt will reconsider these external offers. As I say, most of them are not very short-term. Most of them tend to be, look, if you want to build, if you want modernize a certain sector, build infrastructure or do training something like that, there are huge amounts of money available. In the case of Europe, the European Investment Bank, and from the EBRD – the European Bank of Reconstruction Development, which was set up at the end of the Cold War in order to help he countries of eastern and central Europe to modernize after being past of the soviet system. It's very successful. It continues to lend billions and billions to Eastern Europe. We in Britain have been trying to get it to adjust its focus a it towards what we call the southern neighborhood- the Arab countries of North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean – and we've succeeded in doing that. We've managed to get an agreement that EBRD since the Egyptian Revolution, should be available for schemes for major lending to Egypt. So as soon as your government is ready with plans – and we're getting there, we're discussion – funding those projects will happen and will be tremendous benefit to Egypt. Q. So the Egyptian government hasn't proposed any kind of plans or suggestions for these? A. Some government departments, some ministries do have plans. I called on the education minister the other day. He has some excellent plans – a whole range of things: teacher training, skills development, improvement of education, from the very lowest, some of the rural areas, and right up to higher education and research. But he's lucky in a way because he also ready had these plans from before, when he was minister of education last time, I think in 2004/2005. He's a very well organized man. So he and his team have these pans and we had a great conversation about how Britain can help with a lot of this. Through technical cooperation, not throwing sums of money. It's using the expertise we have backed by significant amounts of money – tens of millions rather than hundreds of millions – to produce the changes that can reform the capacity building, and the skills, the skills base, all of which are needed to modernize the economy and create employment. So Egypt's entire model has been one of low investment in human capital, to be honest, on the whole. Egyptian workers are good, they're easy to train, they work hard, and they don't cost much. That's been the model. Every economy starts in that position but every economy that's gong to be successful needs to move up the chain and invest more in its workers. That's why we're really excited. I was discussing this today as well. Britain feels we can help with training, training of trainers, development of vocational skills, in all sorts of sectors. Including very basic sectors like English language and English language training. This has been very enthusiastically received by our Egyptian friends. The minister of education is one, the minister of cooperation is another. So, I'm just so excited I can't wait for next year, because there are so many good things we can do that we're preparing now. Q. Have you received any proposals from the Ministry of Interior? A. The Ministry of Interior is interesting because they feel they have things to learn from us, or from anybody including us, abut how to organize a police force, how you get security forces to adhere to modern standards of human rights and so on. And we would be very happy to handle that. It hasn't got any specific stage yet, but I think politically its important to know that the ministry does want to move in that direction. They are genuine about that. Q. When we talk about assistance, Egypt is a very uncertain political state right now. There are a lot of people who think it's possible that next government will have a majority of Islamists, whether the Muslim Brotherhood or someone else. How worried is the British government about this, and should the Islamists gain a majority in the government, how will that affect British assistance to Egypt? A. None of that would affect British assistance to Egypt. British assistance is consistent, it's long-term, it's designed to build the overall capacity of society to meet its own needs or economic growth and social development. We don't mind whatever type of government is in power as long as it wants us to offer these kinds of help, as long as it's delivering the results that we all think it should deliver, economic growth and social development Coming back to the original question, about whether are we worried, I have detected no worry at all in Britain. We are concerned – I'd like to put it another way – we really want Egypt to take this opportunity, this historic, once in a century opportunity, to develop a modern state with modern institutions in which power is exercised responsibly but subject to all the restraints an checks and balances of a modern political state. Democracy of course is not just parliament, it's an independent judiciary, it's strict defense of the rule of law, and the rule of law is defending what's in the constitution. The constitution will be critical. The future constitution in Egypt. If it defends, if it upholds individual rights, to the complete extent, then democracy is on a firm foundation. If there is a discrimination in individual rights, one religious group feels it has more privileges to dictate, more freedom than another religious group, then that is very dangerous. That actually is going to corrupt democracy from the very heart. You can't build a real democracy on such a basis. In Europe, we have something called the European convention of human rights, which was created in 1950 and it was really an outcome of the second world war, the horrors that Europe inflicted in the second world war where there was terrible massacres, attempts to genocide entire peoples – Jews, gypsies, huge numbers of Poles, Ukrainians – huge numbers of people died in a very arbitrary and horrible way. So the European convention of human rights was Europe's response to that, to try to make sure we never again have that sort of thing. At the very heart of that convention is Article 3 which forbids discrimination of any kind... religious belief, political orientation, sexual orientation, whatever. And the jurisprudence is based on that. Over the last 60 years to the point where Article 3 defines so much of the law and so we feel that's a very long-standing example of how fundamental human rights discrimination is… to democracy. We think its better than the American constitution. Q. We can talk about this non-discrimination in Europe, but at the same time you have growing xenophobia. A. Let me go back to your point in a moment. If Islamist parties – and everyone have the right to reflect their religious believe in their political persuasion – if Islamist parties guarantee through the constitution that they will always respect the complete freedom of belief and practice of non-Muslims or of different kinds of Muslims… then we don't see any fundamental threat to democracy. But if there are people trying to gain power who feel somehow they gain power and then discriminate or restrict, then that's a problem. That's a problem for Egypt. It's much more a problem for Egypt than it is for any outside power. As I said at the beginning, we aren't gong to cut off aid because we don't; like the color of a particular govt. our commitment is much more long term and deep than that. Q. But do you have a general idea of how they think? There is a difference in the democracy that they talk about and the democracy that you talk about. How can you look at that? How can you evaluate that? A. There is common agreement in the world about what democracy constitutes and what should be at the basis of the constitution. If the cont is going to reflect the UN principles of human rights and rule of law it has got to respect individual freedom. Individual freedom with a law, but a law that applied in exactly the same way to everyone. Q. I do want to go back to this point about growing xenophobia in Europe. As you mentioned earlier, Britain as well as other countries are tightening visa and immigration policies… how can a Europe with growing xenophobia among its people tell another country to promote better equality? A. It's because people may feel more worried about cultural challenges, including the veil and immigration, but European governments and European courts of justice don't waver. That hasn't changed at all. We abide very strictly to comprehensive legislation on hate speech, discrimination, and actually I think we're very proud of our record there. We can't affect what people think about things, but we can certainly make sure the law is applied in a very fair way and these are very good laws. In Britain for example it's extremely difficult, if the government wanted to deport someone from Britain, it's a law case. We can't just do it as an executive decision. If a person wants to appeal against being deported, then it is taken by a court and they look very carefully to see whether any of the human rights of that person are being infringed by what we are trying to do, whether deport them or whatever. Anybody on British soil has exactly the same rights as a British citizen. The law, the judge in the court, says you are standing on British soil you have exactly the same rights. This is fundamental. It's not a question of nationality race or religion…if they're there legally or not, it's exactly the same. But we don't always get it right. There are extremist parties who make a big noise about Muslim immigrants. But you're right. In Europe, particularly now in a time of economic distress, we can express the local people to feel more sore about immigrants coming in, undercutting them in the labor market, but also introducing unfamiliar looks and clothes and food. But you'll find that on the whole the story is a success story of integration… Of course there are social tensions. But the law is absolutely clear, and I think overall Europe and particularly Britain has absorbed a lot of immigration very quickly, and quite successfully. And the Muslims in Britain, for example, say they have more freedom in Britain than they do in any Muslim country. They can practice exactly what they believe. Q. Regarding human rights and how the Europeans and Western countries have always supported human rights in other countries, now the Emergency Law has been extended. How do you see that? Will it affect the upcoming elections? A. Of course we firmly condemn violations of human rights and you look to any authority, any government, if they can to prevent its police from violating people's human rights. We know that the emergency law is one of the issues which in the revolution was very important, and was left, kind of inoperative for a while. It's sort of been revived. Egypt is in a transitional period, therefore we have to show understanding. We need to get from A to B, the in-between is a bit messy. We wish this transition would go smoothly, it haven't gone quite as smooth as people hoped so far. And it musn't take too long because its leaving the country open to pressures and tensions from inside through the lack of a firm outcome… In the meantime you've got the Emergency Law. It's a leftover from the past. It has been revived. The government has provided an explanation saying we will use it in a limited way. Of course that's an important statement. I can't comment on what the Egyptian authorities or Egyptian people want to do in this context because it's not really for me to say. But clearly we would be concerned if there was misuse of any emergency powers. We do, on the same note, understand that in this transitional situation you've got some leftover legislation that you haven't had a chance to replace yet. The national assembly when it's elected and a full civilian government, when it takes over, and the military can stand aside and pave the road, that will be the moment when the national debate through parliamentary debate you will develop laws, criminal justice law, police law or whatever it is, which will fill that gap. Because there's a very big gap at the moment. And then you can get rid of the emergency and the emergency law. Those laws that you're going to draft are going to be really important. We wish you all the success with that. There are many models to look at and many people to give advice, but in the end it's the Egyptian people themselves who will decide what they want. But in the meantime, it's very difficult to have a complete backlog. The police command has to order some action, and he has to know under what law he's ordering that action. So for better or worse, until you've got the new law, you're stuck with the old law and the important thing is to exercise it with moderation, with good judgment and above a humanity and good sense and avoid the abuses which have happened in the past. Q. Is the British government worried that the military council will not hand over power to the civilian authority? A. Well, we see every sign that the military council really does want to hand over. They say it a lot and we believe them, they say we the military council are not equipped to deal with anything more than the short-term transitional problems of this country. So many things need a proper constitutional basis, popular debate, parliamentary decision, ratification by the proper processes of the democratic state, and I've talked to Field Marshal Tantawi myself, and I know that that's his view and he is absolutely sincere about that. And it's logical. It's perfectly logical. The army know they are not equipped to deal with the many problems of political development that the country still faces. And so, the short answer is no, we're not worried because we actually do believe that the military are genuine. And we just wish you all success. It's difficult for the military, it's difficult for the political forces and parties who're finding it frustrating. It is genuinely a very open situation. Much to debate, much to fight for, but we hope you get to elections soon and we hope you get your stable and credible government as a result of that. You need popular legitimacy for the difficult decisions that lie ahead. Not just about the criminal justice law but about other decisions as well. Other kinds of changes. Q. The SCAF have often said they will protect the secularism of the country, and there are many powerful religious parties that are coming out now. How can the military council balance between going back to their places and protecting secularism? A. It's an excellent question and it's one that we discuss every day as well. And it's a kind of exam question – how does an interim authority hand over power in a way that safeguards certain fundamental principles for the state which they believe to be important? They believe in a secular constitution is essential for the safety of the state, future development and so on. And they are entirely entitled to believe that and to feel very strongly about that. I won't comment because it's a matter of such importance to Egypt that an outside like me shouldn't comment, I should leave Egypt to have its own debate. It's not a freakish situation. This is an entirely normal set of problems confronting authorities and political forces in a transitional period. What do you try to say to that? It's quite normal for people, including in this case the SCAF, to have strong views that actually the safety of the country depends on a secular constitution. I don't know why they've reached that, but I can guess because seeing countries which have gone the other way- I won't mention names – but some which have gone right over into a kind of, everything flows from religious law. And those countries have had problems. It's hard to deliver justice to their citizens, and how to agree on forms of govt. I was very interested that sheiks Ahmed al-Tayeb, his declaration back in June or July in which he said, in Islam, there is no such thing as a theocracy. There never has been and there never should be. It's very clear in all of the Quran and the Hadith and the Sunna, it's very clear that it's all to do with, you be as religious as you can be but respect the secular rule. And the terms under which you can object to the secular ruler's behavior are very very tightly defined, and only very extreme. He and many other religious authorities in Islam are saying, what is this business of theocratic state? What is this?. It's an innovation, its something new, it's actually something that doesn't convince any of us. We need to stick to the accepted traditions and principles of Islam and conduct ourselves properly, but leave secular government to the right way. There's no one fixed way. It doesn't have to be the way 7th century Mecca was governed. There's no such thing. Q. Are you worried that Egypt might become another Iran? Because some MPs in Europe are saying that. A. I find those views… how do I put this politely… I find them not founded on fact and not founded on a real knowledge of the country and quite out of order really. On the contrary, I find Egypt really exciting at the moment because it's a country where everybody takes religious seriously, or belief, and people have moral principles. They can be Muslims or Christians or not terribly religious as a person, but everybody actually takes moral conduct seriously. I've seen many countries, and Egypt has always been the case where religious innovation, in the sense of new political movements, have happened. And Egypt is culturally so rich and at the same time so religious that it's produced new religious thinking. I think we're at a moment in history where the Muslim world – if I may say so – the Muslim world is very tired of stupid jihadism and the unthinking violence, the narrow-mindedness of violent juhadism. And they want to rescue Islam from this terrible image which has been given, not just an image but also just rescue it from jihadist sand restore the deep humanitarian, deeply humane values of the Quran. Deeply peaceful values, deeply social values which Egypt is a peaceful and social country. It's a very peaceful society. I know you may not think so sometimes when you see the driving, but actually Egypt, you are a people who really knowhow to live together and you always have lived together. And I think Egypt is the place where, with the confidence that you have from your revolution and from the success you're going to have now with your political transition, you're actually going to project greatly the image of confidence and, if you like, innovation – in a good sense, not in an irresponsible sense. Renewal, if you like, renewal of the values. And it's going to be in ways that we can't even guess at this stage. It's going to come from the young generation, although with some very interesting older people supporting it. I hope I haven't been too vague or too romantic, but I really think this is ideal times of human thought and human spiritual development, and I think Egypt is the crucible where very exciting things are going to happen. In 20 years time we will look back on this period in Egypt and say, aah, this is where all this writing began, this thinking, this music, this art, this inspirational, new ideological thinking. Which will inspire the rest of the world I think. Egypt, you are ready for a great cultural renaissance. You've been held down for so long, it's coming. Q. Changing topics, where does the UK stand on Palestinian statehood? A. Absolutely clearly. We have been the strongest supporters of an independent state for Palestine living in peace and security. We're very clear what the criteria are – 1967 borders with very minor adjustments, agreement on Jerusalem, agreement on refugees. Its been stated in successive European council has come up with a series of positions, each one getting more specific and stronger if you like on what that statement looks like. And this is very much Britain's position. We've been instrumental in developing this very forward position by Europe. The trouble is, people don't tend to read the European statements cause they think EU language is so boring. But actually it's very specific. We are very much in favor of a Palestinian state. On this question of the Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN, we feel that the state we think will work and that will be on a found basis and will really bring peace will only come from agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. We know that that has been extremely difficult to get. We know that it's even been difficult to resume negotiations in the last few years, and there's a lot of mistrust on both sides, and there's been a lot of settlement building by Israelis, which undermines their commitment to this. We know all that background, but we are determined to keep working for talks, genuine talks between both sides must be fully committed, which will lead swiftly to agreement. Everyone knows what the outline looks like. It has been debated for the last 20 years, every since Oslo it's been debated what it looks like, and everybody knows what it looks like. We believe that this will be absolutely essential and of great importance to Israel's own security. So we really think Israel, that the option for peace in Israel is to say, let us do this together, let us do this agreement. The Palestinians deserve their own state, their own lands. We believe there should be a real state. Real borders with real independence and proper, full international standing and ability to enter into treaties and so on. But this particular state right now in the General Assembly, we have doubts about it. We have doubts because we know .. the Israelis say that it's actually going to make things worse. We wish it could make things better. We have to take into act what both parties feel and not just what the palest feel. So we're trying to use all this debate, all the energy and attention that's going into this issue now at the GA, to really persuade both sides to look afresh at what they can do and move into these talks which take us forward rather than just… An important statement at the UN which, it's not that we don't want the Palestinians to assert their statehood, we don't want them to do it I a way and in a time and in a context which gets us to the point of achieving a state. It's a complicated argument. Q. Other opinions think that having the Palestinian state, because the negotiations have been going on and on, and having a state will be maybe a new start for new negotiations that could make more progress. A. This is a very respectable view. The Arab spring has certainly changed the context of everything, including the debate about Israel and Palestine, which got stuck in a very unproductive circle let's say. To write and people looking for a new start of all kinds, and we're certainly not against that, we're just trying to make it all work, we're trying to make the moving parts lead to real progress. We don't want to wait years for this state, we want real progress now. But we don't think it can be done in quite the way that the Palestinians seem to be proposing. Q. Has the Palestinian hand nor been forced in the sense that Israel is so often not held accountable for what it does by the international community? More outcry against Egyptian attack than the Israeli military who killed Egyptian soldiers. Why? A. I can see what you mean exactly, and the Palestinians certainly feel they have been left with very few options. In one sense, in you can say, well they're going to the UN as a peaceful, multilateral base to the UN, that's great. That is really good, and I think they deserve full credit for that. My government thinks they deserve full credit. It's natural for the Palestinians to seek a way forward. It's natural for them to seek a law-based alternative. We don't object to any of that and we wish them success, except that we just want a process to make it a bit more neat in order to engage the Israel's commitment instead of reacting against it. Q. That hasn't worked for 60 years. A. I agree. Q. Back to Egypt, the most important thing that everyone is concerned about now is the assets. The frozen assets. A. People think a lot about the assets. Q. I know there should have been a delegation from the committee here… A. They had to delay it, I'm not sure why. Q. What are the updates? Has the Egyptian side done any more work? A. I believe they have been working very hard. But, as far as I know, unless there's some discovery they haven't yet told us, I don't think there's been a breakthrough. We haven't received any significantly new information. What I can say to you know is what I would have told you 2 months ago, which is we're ready to help, we've got a whole team in London working on this, they talk regularly on the phone to their Egyptian numbers, who were planning to visit welcome and are very welcome to visit any time they can make it, we're ready to talk to them about it. In the meantime, I don't think much progress has been made in discovering the identity or the location of the details of these famous assets. Because to be honest, n Britain, we have trillions of accts, trillions of company names which could be hiding, could be front companies, could be hiding something. There are ownership chains on how people do these things if they want to avoid detection. If somebody wants to hide their assets in Britain, or anywhere, it's quite possible to do that and extremely diff for the investigation authorities, if you've got nothing t go on, to find this. But Britain has legislation before this year – it's been in force for some time – against money laundering, which means that all British banks, whenever anyone is holding funds on behalf of individuals or companies, they have to monitor what's going on. If we tell them to freeze the acct belonging to named individuals… that works. It works very well, as long as they know that account X really is in the name of one of these people. So, we have the instruments, we already have our laws in place, if we know what they are. We then have, as every country would have, the question of deciding, ok, a court has to consider whose assets are these, and can they be transferred from A to B, from whoever owns them to whoever claims to own them. Since these assets which we hear about, which we can't find, are alleged to have come from commercial dealings, sales, whatever, in the names of private individuals, but n one knows how the money was generated. All that needs to be investigated. Q. Are there future plans to cooperation on mutual projects in Libya with Egypt? A. We would love the Egyptian government to act in support of the new Libya and we're very glad that the government is telling is that they are. FM was there last Thursday, same day as my PM. Egypt has offered a lot of humanitarian help, but also help with development of aw and parliamentary institutions and so on, which I think is just great. Libya needs a good friend as a neighbor. A country with depth of constitutional experience, depth of political institutions, which is what Egypt has. So I think that's very beneficial. Whether it could be a three-cornered cooperation I'm not quite sure yet. It's a bit early to say, but it would be great if that happened. On Egypt, as I said we're really excited because we've got this potential cooperation, particularly in building capacity, skills, and education, but also I should mention the smaller-medium enterprise sector, the min of trade has asked if we can offer advice on regulation of the sector, because it's very unregulated. Regulation has to be just right – light enough to encourage development, but a degree of presence in order to ensure workers are treated correctly and standards are upheld, so they're ultimately… If you've got nobody paying tax form 70% of the economy, you've got a revenue headache. Q. One final question. Has the Egyptian revolution, or the greater Arab spring, had any affect on the British people? A. They are very enthusiastic. Egypt is still, you know, it's one of the uplifting moment and causes of the whole year. People still talk about it .when I told my friends and family I was going over to be ambassador in Egypt, they said, “Fantastic, you're so lucky!” It's a great historical moment. And I get this form everybody – from taxi drivers. Britain is very sympathetic to Egypt, and a bit worried because now we're getting press stories saying things are not going well in Egypt… the attack on the Israel embassy, a lot of disports over what form the councils taking. It's beginning to filter though, people saying the Arab spring isn't quite as wonderful as people said it was. And then wiser voices are saying, this is ok, this is normal, give it time. This is a process. The result still is good. You still have the opportunity to build wonderful, new democratic system which is homemade in Egypt. It is yours, its been won by the revolution, it's been decided upon by intense political debate, taking Egypt forward into a new era. It's very exciting. I'm so glad I will be here for the next 3-4 years, seeing this baby being born.
