When I read the reply of Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail to the parliament's inquiries concerning the government's performance regarding the problems which the country is suffering from, particularly the rise in prices and the crisis of flashfloods, I noticed two things I could not help but write about. However, I am convinced that it is necessary to wait a little bit in order to understand what will happen after the flotation of the pound. The first thing is his reply saying that the Egyptian economic crisis started in the eighties and has continued until now, and that this crisis has worsened to the extent that it has become necessary to take tough decisions. As for the second, it is his statement that what took place in Ras Gharib was due to climate change and was not included in the preparations against the floods because what happened was not expected and was unprecedented! As a matter of fact, the prime minister was right on both counts. However, the real crisis in both issues is the way in which the matter was handled. Regarding the deterioration of the economy, the state is still using the same mentality in regards to reformation, which is applying the International Monetary Fund's recipe based on cancellation of subsidies, pound flotation and imposing new taxes without conducting any real reformation in the state's administrative system in a comprehensive way. I am totally convinced of these measures' validity. However, I firmly believe that every time the state ignores the most important measure, which is setting up an integrated system of the available human resources in order to specify the real needs of the workforce in the state's administrative apparatus, after redistributing it according to their real expertise and efficiency so as to obtain the utmost benefit to the state and before resorting to the new civil service law. The second matter concerns the Ras Gharib crisis and what happened due to climate change and not expecting those flash floods; I also see that it needs reviewing with the environment minister, because he was -- and I think that he still is – an active member in a programme managed by the German science centre in Cairo titled the “Cairo Climate Talks”. Throughout the years a number of local and international environmental experts have participated in the programme where conceptions of the expected climate change scenarios were laid down. They were very similar to what actually did happen. Did the environment minister form an Egyptian scientific committee charged with mapping the expected climate changes in Egyptian territory? I think the real problem is not in the measures taken by the government, but in the need that it should clarify how matters will be tackled after taking those decisions. For instance, after the subsidies are completely cancelled, will the government pump the subsidy money to citizens in the form of salaries, pensions and insurances increases in order that people can overcome hardships that will arise due to price rises? Many a time we have heard about what's called the parallel economy. It is worth several billions and it doesn't pay taxes to the state because it is a random economy. Will it be legalised? Will the government insist on collecting its arrears of taxes unpaid by businessmen? Will the state set clear conditions concerning which industries will be exempt from taxes? That will be provided on condition that these industries are committed to manufacturing one hundred percent of their products locally after a certain specified time? If they don't abide by this, the state would impose taxes on them in a way that secures those factory owners that do, and saves money needed for development at the same time. All these questions need answers from the state, answers that are not of the type “we didn't expect this or that”. Because the states should have a clear vision and a government apparatus capable of forecasting and expecting things that may affect development in the country according to real, comprehensible scientific studies.
