On 6 September President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi issued a decree creating a presidential advisory council. The council is expected to play a lead role in advising government officials on national projects and major infrastructure and development plans such as construction of the parallel Suez Canal, improving road networks and new housing projects. Al-Sisi met with the advisory board, which includes prominent scientists, at Al-Ittihadiya Palace. At the meeting, he said the new advisory council would also be expected to help “in correcting religious discourse, improving media discourse and improving the quality of education and linking it to the needs of the market.” Members of the council's board include experts in the fields of higher education, scientific research, pre-university education, energy, agriculture, geology, information technology, medicine, public health and economics. “The attendees represent the nucleus of the council, distinguished scholars and experts who are capable of providing a strategic vision of the country in the future in a way that guarantees integration and synergy between the previously mentioned fields,” said Al-Sisi. The council will adopt a holistic approach towards implementing development plans, said presidential spokesman Ihab Badawi. He announced that the council includes Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zuwail, leading heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub, Schiller Institute collaborator Farouk Al-Baz, who is also director of the Centre for Remote Sensing at Boston University and a former NASA Apollo scientist, Microsoft Deputy Chairman Ali Faramawi, founder of the Urology and Nephrology Centre of Mansoura University Mohamed Ahmed Ghoneim, psychiatrist Ahmed Okasha and economist and former chairman of Barack Obama's Global Development Council Mohamed Al-Erian. The advisory council will be headed by Zuwail who is due to hold a press conference today at the Zuwail City of Science and Technology. Zuwail is expected to address the scientific aspects of the council's work and the role of the Zuwail City of Science and Technology in the Suez Canal development project. “The conference will be attended by other council members, including Ghoneim and Yacoub,” says Zuwail City spokesman Sherif Fouad. “Al-Sisi has charged members of the council with responsibility for reducing the brain drain, which sees many of Egypt's most educated and skilled workers move abroad to find work,” said Fouad. The council, according to Fouad, will also oversee the transfer of technology, foster scientific research, play a role in identifying Egyptian innovations that have commercial potential, and provide technical advice on investment and tax reform and other economic issues. “The advisory council seeks to provide expertise in a wide range of fields,” says Okasha, “Leading Egyptian scientists are working around the world to help end the recession in their homeland and move Egypt towards a better future.” “The council will be affiliated to the presidential institution and there will be total support for its mission,” says Okasha. “The country is in dire need of initiatives like this, which can help upgrade Egypt's performance across a range of activities.” Okasha believes one of the council's most significant roles will be to assess ways to implement mega-projects such as the Suez Canal development plan, delivering the highest possible quality at the lowest possible cost. Work on the canal, launched by Al-Sisi, is expected to cost more than $4 billion and involves digging a new channel as well as the construction of industrial, residential and tourist projects along the banks of the waterway.
