SINCE its creation in the middle of the last century, the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation was supposed to produce military equipment not only for Egypt but the entire Arab world. The aim was to put an end to the Arabs' dependence on foreign powers for their weapons and heavy military equipment. For no apparent reason, the project was abandoned and the Organisation gradually started producing basic domestic appliances and the Arabs continued to buy their weapons and military facilities from foreign countries. Recently, the Organisation's Chairman General Hamdi Weheiba said that there were negotiations underway with a foreign country, that he didn't name, for the production of Egypt's first fighter in the Organisation's factories. He even referred to a project for producing a pilotless aircraft, adding that his institution had already produced high quality military equipment like the TGL jeep and the Fahd armoured car. However, he stressed that exporting the Organisation's products is a political matter, rather than a financial one. Does this mean that, if huge sums of money are spent on producing new kinds of fighters and other aircraft, we will still produce very few goods for local use, while failing to market the new products in the Arab region or at least Africa? It would be great to minimise our dependence on foreign countries for military hardware, so that our decisionmaking could be independent of foreign influence. However, Egypt still has the right to use its vast experience in military production to enhance its military exports, just like many countries in the region.
