President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi inaugurated the third National Youth Conference (NYC) on 25 April in Ismailia. Ministers, MPs and more than 200 governmental officials attended alongside 1,200 young men and women. Improvements to healthcare, economic development and sustainable energy were high on the NYC's agenda. At the opening of the conference, which coincided with Sinai Liberation Day, the president asked participants to stand for one minute's silence in honour of Egypt's martyrs. He went on to tell the audience that Egypt is passing through very difficult economic times which have required the application of some painful reforms. He appealed for the public to be patient and promised that current hardships would be temporary. “I have put the nation's welfare above my own popularity. We have to be able to lead a decent life in a properly developed country or leave it,” he said. The government's economic reform programme which began to be implemented in November has seen the Egyptian pound floated, energy subsidies cut and the introduction of a value-added tax. Al-Sisi identified unemployment, which stands at 12 per cent, as one of the biggest challenges facing the government. “Egypt's public sector is swollen with unnecessary workers. It could function with just 20 per cent of those currently employed,” said Al-Sisi. The president also addressed terrorism in Egypt. “Though this particular challenge is a serious threat to the country's stability it too is temporary. The military, alongside all other concerned authorities, is exerting every effort to end the phenomenon,” he said. He told the audience that unity was the only way to face down the threat of terrorism. The president then went on to say that the army is playing an important role in the development process and that the public should unite behind it and other state institutions “in order to face the current and upcoming challenges”. Economic weakness, he said, was the result of mistaken policies applied over the last five decades which had led to the shrinking of the middle class but “the government is working hard to correct these past mistakes.” “Past governments had avoided the difficult decisions that are needed to build a strong nation. They resorted to temporary solutions — sedatives — leaving the situation to deteriorate,” he told the participants. “This indecisiveness fed into a lack of awareness of the challenges facing the nation and the problems that have to be overcome.” “Egypt's institutions are suffering from flaws on all levels and we need to face up to this honestly,” he said. On the sidelines of the conference Al-Sisi met with young people with special needs who expressed their appreciation of the president's decision to declare 2018 as “the year of people with special needs”. On the second day of the conference Al-Sisi visited the construction site of new Suez Canal tunnels. He was accompanied by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Defence Minister Sedki Sobhi and a number of conference participants. On 29 April the conference's Facebook page announced a new initiative “Ask the President” which will allow citizens to pose questions directly to Al-Sisi. The conference's Facebook page posted a link which members of the public can attach to their own Facebook or Twitter accounts in order to ask questions. Al-Sisi's official spokesman Alaa Youssef said the initiative would facilitate communication between the president and young people in particular and was an important element in the ongoing strategy to encourage greater dialogue between the government and the public. “Questions that have been asked so far have focused on inflation, the government's performance, the problems young people face in accessing leadership posts, and the anomaly of designating the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group yet not doing the same with Hamas,” said Youssef. The first Youth Conference convened in Sharm Al-Sheikh in December. The second was held in January in Aswan.
