As voters cast their ballots tomorrow, Egypt turns over a new leaf in its decades-long endeavour for democracy. The country's landmark presidential elections will be a milestone on a long road for shaping the political and socio-economic outlook of the whole region. Presidential candidates have been mobilising all their stamina and promises in a bid to win more votes. But when it comes to the economy, most of them lack a clear-cut programme to fix what analysts describe as a legacy of corruption that lasted 30 years. The 13 candidates, who are contending for Egypt's top post, have all made sketchy statements about the country's economic ailments. Hamdeen Sabahi, Abul Ezz el-Hariri and Khaled Ali, who may be considered as being at the left of the rest of the candidates, have been making rhetorical statements about ‘social justice' and the rights of the poor to education and healthcare. Islamist Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh and Mohamed Morsi of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, have been using free market language, appealing to investors and the West. Statements made by Ahmed Shafiq, the last premier in Hosni Mubarak's era, and Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister and secretary-general of the Arab League, have been reminiscent of the toppled regime. "My programme will bring about social justice," Shafiq told an electoral conference in the Upper Egyptian town of Aswan earlier this week, adding that he would work on boosting tourism to attract 100 million arrivals. But he has given no details about such a programme. Moussa has been very concise, stressing that he would have security and economy as his top priorities, promising to go ahead with the Development Corridor, initiated by geologist Farouq el-Baz. The project, forecast to cost $24 billion over the coming 10 years, is planned to link Egypt with the rest of Africa as it will link the Mediterranean port of Alexandria with Cape Town in South Africa. El-Baz believes the project will "change the face of Egypt" by creating 200 cities and around 500,000 villages in the Western Desert. The Development Corridor project includes a 1,200km superhighway to be built from west of Alexandria to the southern border of Egypt, 12 east-west branches, with a total length of approximately 800km, linking the highway to high-density population centres, as well as a railroad for fast transport, parallel to the superhighway, a water pipeline from the Toshka Canal and a power grid to supply electricity. Islamist Abul Fotouh has outlined his programme for transforming Egypt from a country that depends on proceeds from the world into a manufacturing hub. Egypt's rental economy relies heavily on the Suez Canal, tourist arrivals and remittances from Egyptian expatriates, which total more than 80 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), according to official reports. Khaled Ali shares Abul Fotouh's vision for prioritising the manufacturing sectors and agriculture as a mainstay for development. Ali has made it clear that he would invest in human capital, citing its essential role in development. Nasserist Sabahi has made it clear that he wants to reform the State budget in a way that targets more funds for education, healthcare and scientific research. He said he would focus on seven basic industries: textiles, pharmaceuticals, steel, cement, fertilisers, engineering and motion pictures. Mohamed Selim el-Awa has underlined technological projects as the solution, highlighting renewable energy – solar and wind energy – and water desalination. Awa said that he would concentrate on luring investments to these sectors. El-Hariri of the Socialist Popular Alliance targets reshaping the economy, setting up pricing rules to combat poverty and redistributing the national income justly. As a leftist, he believes in the State being a major player in economic development. Like Abul Fotouh and Ali, Mohamed Morsi has vowed to turn Egypt into a manufacturing hub. But he will do that through 100 national projects, costing $1 billion each, to realise an economic growth of 7 per cent per annum within five years. The statements made by other candidates are not worthy detailing, as they're all very similar. All candidates, except for Hariri, lack a vision for real economic change. Egypt took the socialist path in the 1960s, when the public sector enjoyed its glory days. In the 1980s, consecutive governments under the now ousted Hosni Mubarak, who took the helm in 1981, did all they could to get rid of State-owned companies. All candidates, except for Hariri, adopt free market concepts, varying in their semantics. They all target social justice, combating poverty, improving healthcare and education. For 30 years, this is what Mubarak talked about. Whoever wins will face three major challenges: unemployment, inflation and slowing growth rates. He will, in a manner of speaking, be walking on broken glass. Although the country's economy grew by an average of 7 per cent of GDP prior to the global downturn, which hit the world in 2008, Mubarak's regime failed to slash unemployment, which averaged more than 20 per cent before the January 25 Revolution, according to unofficial reports. "Although Egypt's economic growth prior to the revolution was impressive, unemployment officially remained in the neighbourhood of 10 per cent. “Youth unemployment was much higher, while roughly 20 per cent of the population was living below the poverty line," the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in an analysis about the Egyptian economy. Unemployment hit 11.9 per cent of the labour force in 2011, up from 9 per cent a year earlier, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). Around 800,000 new potential workers enter the labour market annually, according to CAPMAS. The United Nations forecasts Egypt's population to reach 100 million by 2020. By 2050, the population will probably be somewhere between 140 and 155 million, according to the country's Supreme Council for Urban Planning and Development. Population growth will be a major challenge facing the coming president.
