Al-Sisi calls on media to focus on challenges facing Egypt

President heads to Austria to meet Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, participate in Africa-Europe Forum

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said the government will expand in implementing service projects, such as seawater desalination plants, housing, eliminating ashwa'yat (informal housing areas), and sewage plants.
This came during the president's speech on Saturday in the inauguration of a number of projects in Al Tor and Abu Redis in South Sinai, and Cairo with the attendance of the country's top officials and ministers.
Al-Sisi added that the state is facing various challenges with few resources, calling on the Egyptian media to focus on those challenges to inform the people of the government's efforts to overcome them.
Furthermore, the president added that one of the reasons the 2011 revolution occurred, is that no one explained to the Egyptians the real status of their country, and its conditions.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said that since December 2014, 8,278 projects worth EGP 1.56bn were implemented in the fields of electricity, housing, transportation, education, and petroleum.
Madbouly added during his speech at the inauguration ceremony, that more than 333,000 housing units were established as part of the public housing project. For education, around 49,400 school classes were established, as well as 14 schools in science and technology (Stem subjects) for the top students.
Moreover, Al-Sisi headed to Austria on a three-day official visit on Saturday to enhance the bilateral ties and to address the issues of common interests including eliminating illegal immigration. Al-Sisi is scheduled to hold talks with the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, and to take part in the high-level Africa-Europe Forum in Vienna on 18 December.
The forum entitled “Taking cooperation to the digital age” aims at enhancing the cooperation between Africa and Europe, in the digital and innovation fields, with the participation of top representatives of major African and European corporations.
Rwanda will be co-hosting the forum with Austria that held the European Council's (EC) presidency in July this year.
In a statement, the Egyptian presidency's spokesperson, Bassam Radi, said that Al-Sisi and Kurz will hold a meeting to discuss increasing the amount of mutual trade, and encouraging major companies and investors to invest in Egypt.
Meanwhile, efforts of countering illegal immigration, terrorism, extremism, and the Middle East's recent updates will be discussed.
Combating illegal immigration and controlling the flow of immigrants were among the most significant topics on the EC's agenda of discussions in the past few years.
Earlier in July, Egypt renewed its rejection to build refugee camps on its lands for migrants deported from the EU countries, after a new EU-wide migration deal revealed that the EU leaders will seek to build shelters for asylum seekers in the Middle East and Africa.
The deal was agreed on by Germany and other 16 EU member states including France, Finland, Lithuania, and Hungary to quickly relocate migrants to the initial countries receiving them, as well as calling for building large ‘anchor centres' at Germany's borders.
According to a 2018 report released by the UNHCR, more than 221,675 refugees and asylum seekers were registered in Egypt, with 3,118 newly registered in 2018.