Unemployment and FTA with the US dominated the Egyptian delegation's stay in Davos, writes Nihal Saad The annual World Economic Forum held in Davos has had a change of heart this year, abandoning to some extent its traditional role as the talking shop of the rich to focus more on socio-economic issues, ranging from ways to create new jobs to ensuring immigration policy meets with security and integration concerns of neighbouring countries. Such is the lure of Davos for political and business leaders that no speaker at the summit gets paid; rather, they pay to speak. In addition to the aforementioned topics, the town-hall- style plenary sessions of the five-day summit also addressed the growing economic power of India and China and a changing economic landscape in which oil is increasingly the wild card. Egypt's high-profile delegation, headed by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, included the ministers of investment, foreign trade and industry, finance, communications, transport and health. The delegation weighed in on Alp- sized issues ranging from Egypt's economic and political reforms to job creation and welfare provision. "This year we have a new story to tell. Egypt's government has a second and new mandate, and we are bound by our election programme," Nazif told journalists. Throughout the conference the delegation juggled bilateral meetings with officials such as WTO Director-General Pascale Lamy and UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw with boardroom discussions with the CEOs of heavy- weight multinationals, including Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft and Coca Cola. The delegation also met Klaus Schwabb, CEO of the Davos Forum, to discuss preparations for the World Economic Forum on the Middle East, to be hosted by Egypt from 20-22 May. The forum -- "The Promise of a New Generation" -- will focus the problems facing the young. In Davos Nazif faced tough questioning on how Egypt intended to provide job opportunities for new entrants to the labour market. Addressing foreign journalists at a press conference Nazif highlighted the fact that foreign direct investments (FDI) have almost tripled during the current fiscal year and are expected to double next year to reach $4-5 billion. "I see that trend continuing, generating new jobs particularly in the tourism, oil and IT sectors," he said. Touching on economic relations with the US, not least the stalled Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Nazif said that Egypt as a matter of principle pursued such agreements, and had signed FTA's with the EU and, more recently, Turkey. He added that the US has already signed FTAs with a number of Arab countries, but noted that "if the US feels the Arab region is Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan [while] excluding Egypt... then it is making a big mistake". To "e" or not to "e" -- Davos was buzzing with the question. Nazif, together with Minister of Communication and Information Technology (CIT) Tareq Kamel, attended several meetings with IT gurus during which the prime minister, who as minister of CIT took Egypt's IT sector to new heights, boasted of Egypt's e-achievements. "E-ing is a sine qua non of Egypt's transformation," Nazif said. "We have jumped 10 points in our e-readiness." More than 50 government services can now be processed online. In addition a public--private partnership with IT multinationals has paved the way for the launch of Egypt's Education Initiative, part of the Global Education Initiative launched in Davos two years ago.
