IN A KEYNOTE speech on Saturday to a joint session of the People's Assembly and Shura Council, President Hosni Mubarak addressed a wide array of domestic and regional issues, including the latest showdown between Iraq and the United States, the problems obstructing the implementation of the Wye River Accord and the dispute between Syria and Turkey. Mubarak also reviewed the major achievements of the past 17 years which have raised the living standard of millions of Egyptians. The president underlined the importance of a peaceful settlement of the Iraq-US confrontation. Turning to Arab-Israeli peace-making, Mubarak urged the United States to play an active and neutral role to ensure the smooth implementation of the recent Palestinian-Israeli agreement. He described the Wye River Accord as a "memorandum of understanding expounding ways of honouring the commitments contained in past agreements". He said what was achieved at the Wye Plantation was "a step in the right direction, provided that it is followed by honest implementation in good faith, including a third redeployment of Israeli troops in the West Bank". Mubarak also urged Israel to show readiness to resume peace negotiations on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks. The president underlined the importance of the Egyptian role in defusing the Syrian-Turkish dispute. He expressed hope that the memorandum of understanding recently signed by the two countries will be followed by other steps that will reinforce relations between the two neighbours. Mubarak's speech was widely seen as presenting Egypt's programme of action for the next century. The president affirmed that Egypt needed to build on its strengths and expand its skills as it entered the 21st century, in order to maintain its leading position in a fast-changing world. In this context, Mubarak said total investments in socio-economic development over the past 17 years had amounted to LE514 billion. This figure, he explained, included LE243 billion for infrastructure projects, LE223 billion for establishing new production lines and LE48 billion for upgrading public services. Mubarak also boasted that Egypt had been highly successful in creating an attractive investment climate. As a result, he said, the private sector's share in development projects had climbed from less than 20 per cent in 1982 to 65 per cent at present. Egyptian industry, he added, has also flourished and there are now as many as 4,700 factories in the country. The greatest challenge facing Egypt in the next century will be to catch up with the latest technology, Mubarak said. He also stressed the importance of the new mega-development projects in the south-western desert, Sinai, Suez and Port Said in helping the nation break out of the confines of the Nile Valley to achieve a comprehensive redistribution of its population.
