The biggest surprise in Prime Minister 's parliamentary policy statement was its bluntness. Gamal Essam El-Din reports Unlike his predecessors, Prime Minister chose not to delve into too many details while outlining his government's policy statement to parliamentarians this week. He did make clear, though, that turning Egypt into a market economy was the main focus of his plans. Nazif's less than hour-long speech outlined, in broad strokes, the manner in which his government planned to implement President Hosni Mubarak's presidential election platform. That plan includes a package of political and economic reforms that encompass seven priorities. Nazif's speech made clear, however, that fighting unemployment, stimulating direct investments, generating more income for the poor, improving social services, and upgrading the country's economic institutions will all be pursued ahead of political reforms and democratisation. In the closely-monitored political realm, the Nazif government aims to scrap the emergency law in favour of Western-style anti-terror legislation, as well as reinforce the People's Assembly's supervisory role over the government. "At the same time," he said, "the reforms seek to give more power to the cabinet in mapping out national policies." Other political reforms include legislation currently being drafted by the government to strengthen the independence of the judiciary, and make the criminal procedures law less arbitrary in remanding defendants into custody. Two other laws are aimed at the decentralisation and reinforcement of elected municipal councils' supervisory roles, and softening penalties for publication offences. Within the same context, Nazif said his government is committed to preserving the principle of "citizenship" as the cornerstone of its social policy. "My government," said Nazif, "takes this principle as a basis for deepening the sense of equality among all Egyptians, regardless of religion or sex." The prime minister said that the government would coordinate with the People's Assembly on the scope of these amendments. In fact, that process has already begun; last week, the assembly conducted an opinion poll among its MPs on Mubarak's reform promises. This effort was a response to the president's call -- during a 19 December assembly speech -- for MPs to contribute, in their capacity as the nation's elected representatives, to formulating the necessary constitutional amendments. In this case, the MPs' views will be collected via written proposals, rather than during the standard hearing sessions. MPs are being asked to submit their proposals from the beginning of February to the end of May. This, according to parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour, means that no constitutional or political amendments will be on the assembly agenda this session. Sorour said the report, featuring MPs' opinions, which would be given to Mubarak by the end of May, will help determine the constitutional articles to be amended. Nazif argued that one of his government's priorities is amending the constitution to reflect Egypt's new economic realities. The constitution currently says that the nation's economic foundation is the socialist democratic system; this actually contradicts the past 10 years of developments, during which the private sector took charge of generating 65 per cent of GDP, as Egypt became a quasi-market economy. While Nazif's statement clearly meant to emphasise economic successes, the prime minister admitted that unemployment remains the main thorn in his government's side. Job creation topped the government's priorities, "generating employment opportunities to absorb the increasing numbers of job seekers and implement [Mubarak's] programme of creating 4.5 million jobs in six years." Under the slogan "Job creation via investment", Nazif pledged that his government would do its best to spread the culture of "free enterprise", and encourage young people to undertake their own individual and creative businesses. "Absorbing unemployment via the old socialist policy of appointing school and university graduates in government offices is no longer feasible," he explained. Nazif is optimistic about the growth rate climbing to six per cent by the end of this year, which will certainly help absorb some new job seekers. He touted the drop in unemployment, from 10 to 9.5 per cent, as a "reduction largely due to foreign investments that topped $3.9 billion in 2004/2005." Nazif also promised that LE1.5 billion in annual funding would be provided to small and medium- sized enterprises; with the Social Development Fund's help, that money should create 150,000 jobs. Another 130,000 jobs "will be created via other means of funding like civil society organisations, bank loans and local city councils," he said. Mubarak's campaign promises also included raising the salaries of five to six million civil servants by 75 to 100 per cent, and building half a million housing units, 3,500 schools and 1,000 factories. To meet these ambitious objectives, the General Organisation for Industrialisation has been restructured, Nazif said. As the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), it is now in charge of implementing Mubarak's 1,000 factories promise. IDA will adopt an industrial investment-friendly policy that makes coordination among governorates and new housing communities a priority, and provides lands for new industrial investors at low-cost prices. Nazif bluntly indicated that implementing Mubarak's programme would require a flurry of massive privatisations in all sectors, which was in line with the shift in the government's role to "guardian and regulator of economic activities, with implementation of projects and development plans left to the private sector". That was a basic condition for raising the competitiveness of Egyptian products, Nazif said, and it couldn't be implemented as long as there was "constant pressure on the government to retain its old role as the monopoliser of economic activities." The private sector will be entrusted with implementing more than 90 per cent of the nation's investment objectives, Nazif said. These will even include "implementing infrastructure and service projects". Forty-five public sector companies will be slated for privatisation, while public sector shares in 41 joint-stock companies will be put up for sale. In tandem with this, the government is currently drafting an economic courts law to speed up the settlement of economic and investment disputes. According to Nazif, privatisation will help improve the country's financial situation and reduce the budget deficit. This will be complemented with a "review" of the government's spending on subsidies. Nazif said the new "Social Solidarity" Ministry had been established to ensure that subsidies are available to social classes worthy of them. Trimming subsidies and encouraging privatisation are two areas where Nazif's government has faced its harshest detractors. They argue that the government is merely following the orders of international financial institutions that are pushing for liberalising and globalising the economy at the expense of poorer classes. Mostly emerging from leftist-leaning MPs and newspapers, the criticism has become even louder with the inclusion of even more businessmen in the latest cabinet reshuffle. Nazif's first cabinet, which was formed in July 2004, included two ministers from a business background: Ahmed El-Maghrabi (tourism); and Rashid Mohamed Rashid (industry). In his latest cabinet, the number rose to six; this led the leftist press to charge that Nazif's cabinet looks more like the executive board of a private company. The matter escalated in recent weeks when two leftist MPs charged that two ministers -- El-Maghrabi (now at housing) and Mohamed Mansour (transportation) -- used their influence as major shareholders in the French Calyon bank to pressure the Central Bank into selling Bank of Alexandria' shares in the private Egyptian American Bank to Calyon. Nazif argued that the inclusion of pragmatic and business-minded ministers had boosted the government's financial and economic success. He said the concept of businessmen becoming cabinet ministers should no longer be seen as a bad thing. "Businessmen have the privilege of mixing administrative experience with a forward-looking and global mentality." To prove his argument, Nazif highlighted the rise in GDP from LE485 to LE537 billion ($93 billion), the vast increase in foreign exchange reserves, from $14.8 to $22 billion, the fall in external debt from $30 to $28.9 billion, and the drop in inflation from 16.7 per cent of GDP to 3.1 per cent -- all of which had taken place in just one year.
