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Sunday, Septemper 17, 2000
Brothers and Sisters,Members of the National Conference on Social Development, First, I would like to express my pleasure for the convening of this conference at a critical stage where challenges at home are increasing and developments on the world scene following in succession, thus imposing on humanity at large new concepts in politics, economics, culture science and social and human behaviour in general. These are all matters that require to be addressed through a new, creative line of thought and a piercing vision so as to ensure that Egypt will maintain such standing that becomes the most ancient civilization in the history of humanity. The international changes that imposed themselves on every body were not limited to the political scene. Even more, the world economic and trade order has witnessed deep and radical changes involving innovative forms of its components and outputs. This has placed all countries with varying degrees in the face of extremely significant challenges in the economic and social spheres. Thank God, we took the right decision; responding to these challenges and opening up on the world that is witnessing an array of fast-moving and successive development. We made up our minds to launch a comprehensive but gradual and well calculated economic reform process. In so doing, we avoided those measures that would more or less affect the social dimension, or undermine the interests of the largest portion of citizens. Right from the beginning of reforms, our attention was focused on the fact that the ultimate goal was a comprehensive socio-economic development. Thus, the reform programme, that was approved and so far substantially implemented, had emanated, in the first place, from our own social, economic and cultural conditions. It was further based on a recognition that economic progress will be futile should it lack a social vision that holds man as the pivot as well as the target and maker of development. We have always taken into consideration the current conditions of the Egyptian society in general and the limited income brackets in particular. We have also sought to be an integral partner to world reform movement. By so doing, we had the chance to pursue harmoniously and consistently the socio-economic development process on both national and international levels. We managed to compromise different requirements on both fields with the least degrees of contradiction. Notably, this was accomplished in spite of absence of consensus among different countries of the world and long before such issues become the main items of different summit conferences held by the UN over the past ten years. Since the beginning of the reform process, we have realized the importance of the international and regional dimensions in social development as they reflect the national dimension of development. On the international level, we took the initiative to host the United Nations Conference on Population and Development in 1994 which adopted ambitious plan to face the dramatic increase in population; especially in developing countries. This would ensure the distribution of the development returns among a smaller number of people, thus ensuring a better standard of living and welfare for all peoples. We contributed effectively to the United Nations Conference on Woman in Beijin in 1995 which set an international strategy to promote the status of woman in all fields of health, science, culture, and employment in order to accomplish a complete equality between man and woman without prejudice to her principal role in the family. Moreover, we took part more effectively in the special United Nations session in New York early this year in order to review this strategy after five years of implementation; and to adjust it so as to cope with current developments as well as the growing role played by woman in development in all its dimensions. Furthermore, we were one of the foremost countries that contributed to the formulation of the United Nations Agreement on Child's Rights. We, also, ratified the agreement immediately upon being adopted in 1990. In order to make sure that our own problems and those of the region will be taken into consideration, we sought to join the committee formed by the United Nations to propose various solutions for childhood problems. Also, we had a clear fingerprint on the declaration and action plan issued by the United Nations Conference on Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995. This conference concentrated, inter alia, on eradicating poverty and unemployment, setting debt crisis for developing countries, achieving social integration and solidarity, protecting human rights, realizing complete equality between man and woman, pushing forward development drive in Africa, increasing resources allocated to social development especially by developed countries. Moreover, we had a more visible presence in the special United Nations session in June this year to review achievements already made. Notably we were keen to highlight the negative social aspects of globalization that delay the integration of social development into national development strategies. One of these were the problems of marginalization that has afflicted some weak economies and aggravated their social proplems. Salient of these are the importance of commitment by the developed countries to give 7 per thousand of their gross national income in official development aid as agreed upon in Copenhagen, and the importance of giving the developing countries a larger role in the decision-making process on issues related to international economy. These included also alleviating trade terms imposed by the developed countries, establishing a global net for employing youth and encouraging them to involve in small and medium-size enterprises. All these issues would eventually help reinforce overall social development based on sustainable economic development. Moreover, we asserted our strong commitment to democracy by signing this June, together with more than hundred countries the, Warsow Declaration on creating a democratic society. This Declaration confirmed that people's will is the basis of governance, assuring the people's right to choose their representatives in free and fair elections multi-under a party system, freedom of opinion and expression, and the rule of law under the supervision of an equalitarian, independent and fair judiciary. Measures recently taken after issuing the ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court on complete juridical supervision on elections, have proved the extent of my commitment to entranch democracy so that elections should be just and fair under full juridical supervision. Thus, the people will have the primary and final say in selecting candidates of their choice from among different parties. On the regional level, Egypt has enhanced her initiatives for economic development; with the object of opening new prospects for social development. In collaboration with our brothers in the Organization of African Unity, we contributed to establishing underpinnings for a common market. Pending the materialization of such market, Egypt joined the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa COMESA. In February this year, we hosted the first economic forum to enhance trade exchange among member-states in preparation for a free trade zone to be established by 2001. In addition, we sought to enhance relations between Africa and Europe through our initiative to hold the first Africa-Europe conference in Cairo this year. The conference yielded extremely significant results in the way of relieving African countries from debts, aleviating poverty and providing more job opportunities for workers from African continent as well as enhancing socio-economic development. We are still keen on achieving our own dream and that of all Arabs, of creating an Arab common market. It is my hope that such dreams will gain appropriate grounds in the nearest coming Arab summit. Moving to cooperation with developing countries, our chairmanship of G-15 conference last year was a favourable opportunity to take major steps to enhance social development. The most recent was the G-15 conference in Cairo that adopted a number of significant resolutions including drawing up a uniform global labour strategy to be applied equally on both developing and developed countries. This strategy should provide more social care for the toiling working classes and consequently a better standard of living. Brothers and Sisters,In Egypt, we have been clearly determined to commit ourselves to elaborate development plans to which we strictly adhered. In such plans, we took into account all basic requirements for balanced sustainable development necessary to enable the community to achieve great leaps in reconstruction and progress. Having adopted such comprehensive development concepts, we should naturally seek to fulfil the basic needs for all categories of the society and achieve relative justice in distributing the development returns. In addition, more attention must be given to the development of human resources because the manpower is not only the most important factor of production but also the target aspired by any integrated development process. In Egypt, we are deeply proud of the specific nature of our development experiment in general and social development in particular. In the light of our own identity we had to adopt only those elements appropriate to our circumstances, and at the same time avoid those extraneous elements alien to our deep-rooted traditions, culture and beliefs. We also take pride in the pioneering role played by our civil society and non governmental organizations (NGOs) in supporting popular participation for achieving targeted social development. In conducting their activities, these organizations should abide by legitimacy, law and public national interest. I have been and will continue to be committed to maintain strict balance between reform requirements which we do not have the luxury to delay and the common interest of both the motherland and citizen which our national conscience can not disregard under any circumstances. It has been my choice and so will it be, to remain aligned to the interests of great majority of Egyptian people. It is not only because this represents a part of the rules of legitimacy and responsibilities, but also because I have unlimited belief in these categories right to reap their share of the fruits of development which we have embarked on with full efficiency and determination. I think you agree with me that the real return of our comprehensive development exercise could tangibly be materialize only through a social development enterprise basically underpinned by respect for the Egyptian citizen's right to lead a decent life in his homeland. There should be also a firm commitment to maintain the unity and cohesion of the society, through deepening solidarity among various categories in such a way as to deeply entrench social peace. Thank God we have made long strides on the road to comprehensive development and have already accomplished a rewarding return, ultimately contributing to social transformation which serves the great majority of our people. Brothers and Sisters, I am looking forward to see your conference adopt additional recommendations to support all social organizations especially in the fields of the care of women, child, family, youths, elderly people and handicapped in addition to expanding social insurance umbrella and avoiding any deficiencies, thus making every citizen feel safe for his present and future. Hence, I strongly stress the importance of pursuing our efforts, already started, for providing more care to women and childern. Thereby, they could gain their fair share of learning enlightened culture, decent information, health, social and economic care. This is the responsibility of all parties concerned with family welfare, including parents, thinkers, creative artists, religious advocates and media men. In this respect, the state also shoulders a large responsibility in the framework of solidarity among all categories of the society in order to realize this significant goal. In addition, it would be pointless to talk about social development and its vast horizons, without an objective view of the overpopulation problem and our sustained endeavours to curb increase in population. Although we have made great strides over the past decade, yet the latest population statistics announced in August 2000, showed that Egypt's population has exceeded 65 million. As such, it is still my belief that we do need to redouble our effort, as the current growth rate of population still constitutes an element of pressure on our development-oriented ambitions, leading to a situation where we are stuck to the limit of resisting and preventing the aggravation of conditions instead of progressing forward to development and welfare. Thus, I do not think that we can talk of a better future for the Egyptian citizen under the banners of social development in a comprehensive concept, without giving top priority to education and scientific research, so that any targetted progress in education and scientific research would proceed in line with the social development and the exigencies of the development map. I do not only mean paying attention to the improvement and upgrading of education in terms of quality and level. However, it is my belief that we are in need of an on-going and periodical review of the educational map in Egypt. Consideration should be given to achievements earlier made by several countries that achieved the necessary balance between university education with its various branches on one hand and technical education and vocational training on the other. Our aspired goal should be to obtain new generations of graduates capable of making effective contributions to comprehensive development through concentrating on specializations required by each stage of development. Time has come for an objective outlook that places scientific research in the right position. Instead of being merely a means of obtaining the scientific title, scientific reasearch should be upgraded so as to properly utilize innovations and researches of scientists in serving development goals and providing scientific counsel to various production and service sectors. Brothers and Sisters, I would like to point out that in addition to my interest in education, I am equally interested in human development especially youth. That is because they are the mainstay of the future, the heart of the nation and the soul of its civilization. They are, furthermore, the live embodiment of Egyp's aspirations and ambitions. Therefore, all our efforts should concentrate on how to prepare the coming generations to bear responsibility through deepening their national sense of belonging and reviving moral values which distinguish our people. This would make us more capable of understanding, containing and sorting out all extraneous ideas and values that may penetrate across the border through communication and information revolution that abolished all borders and distances between nations and peoples. As long as we view democracy as the safety valve for this nation's present and future, we are required to deepen the democratic awareness among youth and encourage them to participate and share responsibility. This requires all parties and civil society organizations to apply earnest endeavour to encourage youth participation. This is the way to pursue the march forward and ensure ability of these generations to protect democracy against any future dangers and to shoulder their responsibility under competitive standards. This will eventually guarantee continuous regeneration of national action. I should also stress continuing commitment by the state to provide new job opporunities and to encourage the private sector and business community to positively contribute to alleviating unemployment which has substantially declined over the previous years, in addition to easing the problem of housing, especially for youth and limited-income people. It is our duty to do our utmost to minimize these problems to the lowest possible levels, through creative ideas and intiatives where all sectors of the society should participate. Brothers and Sisters, I have no intention to talk longer on a topic that is the core and essence of your conference. However, I would like to put forward some conceptions concerning the vast prospects of comprehensive social development and the objectives for which we should mobilize our efforts to achieve over the coming years. To this end, I would like to point out a set of remarks which, I hope, your conference will have the opportunity to discuss with adequate depth and make use of in concluding definite recommendations: First: As we agree that man is the target and pivot of development and reconstruction efforts in our national work, it is our duty to satisfy his necessary needs, provide basic services, and upgrade his standard of living, thus ensuring the physical and the moral incentives for him to offer unlimited contributions. Second:Our interest in the human element and the necessity for rehabilitating and developing his capabilities should be accompanied with a concomitant drive to enhance the spirit of work in the society through a right and express understanding that every right corresponds to a duty. It is now time to stress the positive value of work and to face the negative aspects which detract from our capabilities and potentials. Third: Despite all our achievements, over the past years, we are still required to bring about a radical and comprehensive development in the educational and scientific research system as to provide the necessary capability to cope with the smashing scientific progress all over the world. This will be achieved not only by importing modern technology, but also by producing national technologies, based on the creative works of our scientists and researchers. Fourth: The following five years should witness the declaration of Egypt as a country free of illiteracy. This should be immediately followed by a national programme to promote the cultural level of the people in all specializations and orientations. The proposed programme should be instrumental in enriching dialogue, deepening democracy and raising intellectual standards on all levels. Fifth: The population issue should remain at the forefront of our concerns. We should seek to reduce population growth rates to levels necessary to avoid our development achievement being swallowed by such formidable increase. In parallel, we should intensify our efforts to rechart the population map and put an end to the suffocating congestion around the narrow old valley moving forward to the vast expanse of new urban communities. Sixth: To provide health care for each and every citizen will remain both a target and a commitment that we should seek, by all means, to maintain. To this end, we should seek to build more public hospitals, reinforce preventive health requirements, promote health awareness, fully eradicate epidemic and endemic diseases and make available the latest in medical treatment equipment. Seventh: We are in a pressing need to provide all support to childhood and motherhood issues. These should be properly positioned on the list of priorities of national action, given that children are tomorrow's young men and woman represents one half of the society that should take greater responsibility for family care and upbringing coming generations. Eighth: For social justice to be entrenched, it is required to expand social insurance umbrella to cover every citizen on the land of Egypt. Moreover, the dose of welfare services provided by the society to the elderly, handicapped and socially marginalized categories should be augmented to ensure their full integration into the society. Ninth: The housing and unemployment problems should be addressed from a new perspective where the private sector and business community will play a larger role over the coming period in contributing to the provision of necessary jobs and housing. This should go in parallel with the state role in resolving both problems, particularly for youth and limited-income categories. Tenth: We should pursue our work to modernize Egyptian information media and enhance media tools and contents. Thus media can become capable of performing its expected national and pan-national role in a free and democratic environment that allows freedom of opinion, freedom of thought, freedom of creativity without any controls apart from one's own sense of national and pan-national responsibility. Brothers and Sisters, I am fully optimistic that tomorrow, God Willing, will be better and in the coming years we will reap the fruits of our efforts over the past two decades. What makes me more optimistic is that we are now on the right track, armed with a futuristic outlook based on science and technology, taking into account available potential and resources, as well as the huge base of the nation intellectual and physical capabilities. Our successful efforts over the past years, especially in relation to the various aspects of social development, make us more confident and reassured of our ability to accomplish more and more in future. In this respect we depend on our constant and deeply entrenched approach of exposing straight forward facts to the masses and our trust in their ability to perform their role as long as they are armed with the knowledge necessary to stimulate their movement and participation. It will be always my belief that Egypt's most precious asset is its manpower who can make progress, keep pace with progress and remove any obstacles in the way of reconstruction and development. Therefore, our greatest accomplishment is building the Egyptian character that is capable of facing the future challenges under the umbrella of scientific knowledge, political democracy, popular participation and enhanced sense of belonging. I have and will have an unshakable belief that we are proceeding on the right track, fully aware of our goals and objectives and taking care of the interests of homeland. Fully aligned to the interests of the people, we are honestly committed to the trust of responsibility so that Egypt will always maintain its right position among nations. May God bless and protect our march, Peace be upon you |
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