Before winning the presidential elections in the run off held on June 16-17, President Mohammed Morsi pledged, within 100 days, to resolve five major problems facing the country. These problems include improving the standard of subsidised bread; finding solutions to the problem of fuel and petrol subventions; eradicating crime and anarchy and restoring stability and security in the streets; beautifying the nation's streets and squares; and doing something about the chronic traffic jams in major cities. “To overcome these problems, we must all work together, because most of these problems can be blamed on individuals' misbehaviour," says Mohssen Adel, an economic expert. Dr Morsi was sworn into office on Saturday before the Supreme Constitutional Court in southern Cairo. He is the first freely elected president of Egypt and its first Islamist head of State. The day before his swearing in, Dr Morsi addressed a huge crowd in Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the revolution that ousted his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak. "I'm standing before you, Egyptian people, those who voted for me, those who opposed me," he said. "I am a president for all Egyptians, Muslims and Christians." For Dr Morsi to succeed, he must show in the first 100 days in word and deed that he is the President of all Egyptians, appointing an all-inclusive cabinet and reaching out to world leaders. All the Egyptian people pin huge hopes on Dr Morsi as the first civilian president, chosen democratically by the will of 52 per cent of the electorate who voted in the run-off. They want him to solve not just the five above-mentioned issues, but also a lot of economic, political, social and scientific problems, blamed on the corruption of the last regime. People hope he will be able to restore foreign direct investment (FDI) and refresh the tourism sector, as well as finding radical solutions to other problems preoccupying citizens. Dr Hesham Ibrahim, an economics expert, says that the President's 100-day programme for achieving social progress and justice by solving the traffic, bread, garbage, fuel and security crises can indeed be successful if properly implemented. "But the chronic economic problems, namely inflation, low economic growth and the budget deficit, will take longer to resolve. But we need to give the President sufficient time to do this. “If stability and security come back to the Egyptian street, this will be a great start, making it easier to gradually fix everything else," he adds. If security comes back, local and foreign investments are likely to come back too, pushing forwards the wheel of production and boosting exports and tourism, thereby creating new jobs for the unemployed and young graduates. Ahmed Ghoneim, an economics professor at Cairo University, says that there must be clear and fair policies to encourage investment in Egypt, as foreign investors want a stable environment for their investments. "People should give the new President a chance to fix things. We must stop the strikes and sit-ins for the sake of Egypt. We should put Egypt's interests above all our interests," he stresses.
