The president’s remarks came on Thursday during his inspection of the progress realised so far in development projects carried out in Maasara village in the Upper Egypt governorate of Minya under the presidential initiative ‘Decent Life’.

The president said"all development projects focus on serving citizens everywhere." 

He noted that the state is keen to serve citizens in the countryside and Upper Egypt.

He also praised great voluntary work made in Maasara, which is the first model village in which ‘Decent Life’ projects have been fully completed.

The president was warmly welcomed by more than 1,500 volunteers participating in these development initiatives and projects.

In a discussion with one of the volunteers, the president warned against considering the government and the people as separate entities.

"The way of thinking: "The government is here and the people are over there ... therefore, the government is the enemy so we have to wreck it," is what led to a problem in 2011," El-Sisi said.

"The government and people are on the same page," he stressed.

"The country needs sincerity, honesty, and work ... and the state will do what it can to make life easier for people," he added.

El-Sisi’s visit aims to stand on the development progress made in the Upper Egyptian governorate and New Minya city to provide a decent life for citizens there.

The Decent Life national project (Hayah Karima in Arabic), which was initiated in 2019, aims to improve standards of living, infrastructure, and basic services including healthcare across the countryside.

The project covers 4,658 villages across the country, which are home to 58 percent of Egypt’s 104 million population, with an estimated budget of EGP 700 billion.

The enormous volume of work needed to develop the 4,500 villages required the initiative to be divided into three stages comprising 1,500 villages each.