Reviewing local and regional challenges

Gamal Essam El-Din , Tuesday 14 Jan 2025

President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi talked about regional tensions, national security, and economic challenges with students at the Egyptian Military Academy

Reviewing local and regional challenges

 

Developments in Gaza and Syria and national security and economic challenges formed the subject of a two-hour open dialogue that President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi conducted with students of the Egyptian Military Academy on 10 January. The president started the discussion by highlighting the impacts of the war in Gaza and the change of regime in Syria earlier this month.
“These challenges impact Egypt’s national security and require the highest levels of vigilance, understanding, awareness and readiness,” said Al-Sisi.

He stressed that Egypt has been trying to end the war in Gaza for more than a year, secure the release of hostages and secure entry for humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Intensive negotiations were held in Cairo on Tuesday over the details of a comprehensive ceasefire, with media reports suggesting Hamas and Israel are on the verge of an agreement that will include steps towards the cessation of hostilities, facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid, and allow reconstruction efforts to begin.
On Syria, President Al-Sisi said Egypt has sent aid to Damascus through the Egyptian Red Crescent and is working to ensure inclusive governance. He also noted that Egypt is currently home to one and half million Syrians.
Ahmed Abaza, head of parliament’s Arab Affairs Committee, said President Al-Sisi’s words on Gaza and Syria underlined how developments in both impact Egypt’s national security and economy.

“There are still fears of Israel forcibly displacing Palestinians into Sinai, and the war in Gaza has already caused Egypt around LE7 billion in economic losses,” said Abaza. “As for Syria, Egypt is concerned the country could turn into a hub for terrorist groups that then threaten the national security of neighbouring countries, including Egypt.”

During a meeting in Riyadh on 12 January, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty called for greater regional and international cooperation to prevent Syria from becoming a source of instability or turning into a hub for terrorism.
Turning to domestic issues, President Al-Sisi said Egypt overcame multiple challenges since the 2011 uprising had led to the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak. He noted how a succession of events “that hit the country in 2011, 2012, and 2013 depleted the Central Bank’s foreign exchange reserves” and how more recent attacks on ships in the Red Sea had resulted in Egypt losing $7 billion in Suez Canal revenues, the equivalent of LE350 billion which could have been injected into government programmes.

“Yet despite this,” he said, “the International Monetary Fund [IMF] has confirmed that economic reforms in Egypt are going well.” Egypt is expected to receive a $1.2 billion disbursement from the IMF this month as part of the $8 billion programme agreed with the international lender, Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchok said in a TV interview last week.
Fakhri Al-Fiqi, head of parliament’s Budget Committee, said IMF Executive Board approval of the disbursement comes as Egypt is grappling with high inflation rates and a continuing shortage of foreign currency and “after the IMF and the government agreed to delay further reductions in electricity and fuel subsidies because of the impact of regional tensions on Egypt’s finances.”

President Al-Sisi pointed out that when he came to office in 2014, the state embarked on a huge programme to modernise the country, including in the energy sector, where problems continued to be felt last summer, with power outages hitting consumers because the state was unable to find the hard currency necessary to buy fuel, or to sell electricity at its real cost.  The state, noted Al-Sisi, still sells electricity at a quarter of its cost while “a butane gas cylinder costs the state between LE325 and LE340 but it is sold for LE150.”

A total of 300 million cylinders are sold annually.
Responding to a question on the state’s spending on bridges and roads, President Al-Sisi said LE2 trillion had been spent over the last 10 years on building an efficient network of railways, metro lines, shuttle buses, and 2,700 km of new roads to connect governorates. Had the state not taken action to upgrade the transport infrastructure, he said the entire country would have been reduced to “a garage”.
Responding to another question on the cost of infrastructure projects, the president said they were essential to cope with the growth in population, which rose from 80 million in 2011 to 107 million now.

Pointing to the 24 new cities built since 2014, including Alamein city and the New Administrative Capital, Al-Sisi said: “These infrastructure projects have made life better for citizens and created millions of jobs, reducing the unemployment rate to 6.7 per cent.” Infrastructure projects are also important in opening the country to investments, said the president, since investors will look elsewhere in the absence of a reliable electricity grid, efficient road networks, reliable ports and sound legislative structures.
The dialogue also addressed the state’s vision of Egypt’s soft power in Arab and African countries. The president said that one of the positive aspects of work over the past 10 years is that there are now many Egyptian companies operating in Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other countries. He argued that the fact Egypt’s infrastructure upgrade, be it road projects, bridges, ports or tunnels, had been completed solely by Egyptian companies, had allowed them to build trust and develop expertise, and they are now reaping the rewards.


* A version of this article appears in print in the 16 January, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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