Brothers & sisters, members of the General Conference,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Last Saturday, I talked to you, expressing my wishes for a fruitful and successful Congress that gives a fresh push to N.D.P. and its contribution to our partisan and political life as well as to the march of the homeland.

Today, I meet you at the close of the Congress deliberations, to express to you all my congratulations and commendations, to greet and back you after four days of strenuous work and serious debate, giving a paragon of high-level party performance and diligent treatment of the issues of Egypt and its people.

Hearty greetings for every one of you, for each one who took part in this Congress and its events, for each one who offered a proposal, opinion, idea or comment. Greetings ore also due to the dear friends I can see now among your ranks, who came from various governorates and have for long years given much of their experience and experiments to the party.
Special greetings go to all those young and promising faces, to the party young men and young women; the symbol of its renewable vivacity; the launching pad of its breakthrough and a undepletable source of boundless giving.

Brothers & sisters,
We are concluding today our 9th General Congress with much confidence and pride. This Congress was indeed successful and fruitful, in terms of the preparations for its convening, its deliberations and its conclusions and recommendations.

This Congress aims to re-assert once again that the party is at the heart and the forefront of the national march and to once again prove that we continue to lead partisan and political work as the majority party. This Congress comes to affirm our cohesion, unity of our ranks, as members, cadres and leaderships, behind the party's principles, ideas, philosophy, policy and programmes we believe in.

It comes to show our adherence to homeland's issues and priorities and its people's concerns and aspirations and to stress, through the important themes it has addressed, the clarity of vision for present and future Egypt.

I have followed up your deliberations over the four past days. I took part in the Economic Committee meeting on investment and employment. I had a meeting with the party's politburo, general secretariat and parliamentary body.

I tell you today, as we wind down its deliberations, that I came out of all this with more confidence and hope for the future of this party and the homeland.

I tell you, through long years of experience in the position of responsibility that such confidence and hope come not from scratch, but are rather underpinned by solid grounds and indisputable facts.

Brothers & sisters,
The development of the party has taken place in chains over five years; affecting all the party's organs and organizational structures. The party's basic principles have been upgraded, its by-laws balanced with the requirements for partisan action and participation in political life.

We have never been, nor will be captives to outdated dogmas. We have been and are still convinced that we can never make tomorrow with ideas of the past or introversion. We have proved that we are the party that embraces every new and renewable thought and is able to address realities of a transforming Egyptian scene and a variable regional and international milieu.

Over the past five years, the Egyptian scene has been witness to huge transformations of which the party was the driver and initiator. These transformations have changed the face of political and economic life in Egypt.

These transformations were unleashed by al-Menoufia initiative and the amendment of Article 76 of the constitution; its objectives were completed last year by large-scale constitutional amendments that opened new venues for our democracy.

These transformations affected our legislative structure with constitution- complementing laws and others putting our economy and society on the right track, such as laws related to tax customs, financial sectors, investment, competition and customer protection.

The past five years have been witness to the first-ever competitive multi-candidate presidential election in our history. They have been witness to unprecedented vivacity in our political life and events.

Our economy has overstepped years of stagnation and has, over the past two years, shown high investment, growth and employment rates
Where do now stand, compared to our level five years ago. We have made a long way forward with sure and daring steps; what they are our coming steps.

We have put forth a vision of our homeland's future. How can we speedily make it come true?
As we are passing through a transitional phase on the road to reform and development; how can we overcome its problems and challenges? What are the features of the coming period of the march of the party and this people?

I presume that our 9th General Congress, with its outcomes and outline deliberations, was indeed a serious attempt and a serious effort to answer these questions.

Brothers & sisters,
This Congress has affirmed our adherence to the strategic vision of the party's policies in dealing with domestic and national security issues and the future and standing it anticipates for Egypt in the region and the world.

You affirmed our insistence to entrench the political pillars for a modern civic state, based on citizenship values and seeks to establish a modern society that builds up year after year pillars of our democracy, reinforces pluralism, does not mix religion with politics and pursues political reform as a basic reform theme.

While this Congress discussed investment, employment, services and social justice issues, how about these issues in the coming period? How to build on the leap in kind achieved by our economy? How to enhance services rendered to citizens? How to achieve fair distribution of development projects and fruits? How about the development of Sinai? How about Upper Egypt in particular?

I demand the party and its government to take new steps to attract more investors to Upper Egypt governorates and to provide more employment opportunities to their residents. I demand that the current incentive package be expanded and additional ones introduced. I demand that investment- attractive infrastructure projects, particularly roads and gas pipelines networks, with their speedy and direct impact, be accelerated.

The employment opportunities already provided were mostly in the industry and services sectors, how about the agricultural sector? We have already managed to achieve high productivity rates in the newly reclaimed land, how about our wealth of arm land in the Delta and the Valley?

I demand the party and its government to reinforce the agriculture sector and to address problems of Egyptian peasants. I demand more jobs opportunities to be provided in this important sector. I demand the irrigation systems be upgraded, farmers' needs have water satisfied, efficient use of water ensured, fertilizers and agriculture equipments distribution system streamlined. I demand speedy and effective solutions for difficulties and problems incurred by our farmers.

Apart from this, I ask the government to promptly finalize the strategic master plans of new urban cordons and detailed plans for 4000 villages by the end of next year. I demand it also to complete urban plans for all Egyptian villages latest by mid-2009.

In this venue, I call upon concerned authorities to consider, within a legal framework, means of establishing principles for addressing violations made prior to the new urban cordons already approved, apart from the enforcement of any penalties decided or adjudged. Following the approvals of such cordons, law shall be enforced for any subsequent violations.

In this context, as you know, I have instructed the government to make available L.E. 20 billion in additional financing to sanitary drainage projects within three years, as well as further financing resources for drinking water projects. So far, we have managed to make available L.E. 7 billion out of the proceeds of the state-owned asset management programme for this purpose.

We have already used the resources of this programme to be channeled to sanitary drainage, water, electricity and road network projects. We have substituted people-owned assets with other assets in service of our people.
In order to further boost the state owned asset management programme, I demand the party and its government to continue to involve the broader masses of the people in utilizing the benefits of this programme. This must be done in such a way as to reinforce citizens' sense of citizenship of state-owned assets, allowing them to participate in them in the interest of their own and their families, while taking into consideration the interests of the coming generations.

We have also managed to make available L.E. 17 billion out of the proceeds of offering land for investors; these are also channeled to water, sanitary drainage, utilities and housing projects.

I demand the party and its government to pursue this course and accelerate the implementations of these projects. In the meantime, I demand efforts to be redoubled to meet the increasing demand for popular and medium- level housing plots.

I demand further efforts to be made to provide building plots for limited-income brackets and their prices to be controlled. If we already have the land, why should not we satisfy the needs of these who seek to own and develop it?

We are pursuing our policy of providing social protection for poor and limited-income brackets. Social justice is indeed a basic pillar of our public policies. It involves fair distribution of the fruits of growth and development; thus reinforcing equal participation among all our compatriots and pushing them forward.

The party's government is finalizing the extension of the social security net to cover one million families by the end of this year. I demand it to further extend this net to double this number within three years.

I also ask the party and its government to promptly finalize an integrated study of the subsidy issue. This study, to be conducted jointly by various cadres and base units of the party, should re-define eligible beneficiaries and how to reach them, re-prioritize subsidy and its system through new instruments and ideas to ensure it reaches those eligible thereto. This should provide a workable substitute to the increasing pressure subsidy applies to state budget, at a time we are required to channel huge resources to education, health care and other services.

We have an ambitious programme to improve health care services, by building and equipping 750 rural health unities in 16 governorates by the end of June next year.

I also demand therapeutic convoys system be expanded so as to provide free health care and medicine for our citizens in all governorates. We also have another ambitious programme for education enhancement, where the teacher poses as a key hub. I demand the government to speedily complete the establishment of the professional academy of teachers during 2008, within the framework of the amendments to the Law on Education related to teachers' salary scale. I also demand technical education to be given a special priority in the coming period.
In a related context, I have followed up the debate on enhancing the legislative framework governing youth and sports so as to cope up with recent developments in our society, to develop and expand the base and activities of the sports sector and reinforce youth participation in these and other activities, including voluntary work .

I do monitor the implementation of my platform to facilitate transport services for citizens in all governorates. I ask the government to complete the implementation of this platform so as to cover all towns, rural precincts (markazs) and governorate capitals within the first quarter of the coming year.

We exert our utmost to have all these and other programmes implemented. However, we have to admit that the population increase by and by exhausts up a substantial part of reform and development returns. I have repeatedly warned against the implications of the overpopulation issue both at present and in future. I call for a social dialogue to address all dimensions of this issue as well as the necessary role required on local and government levels.

We, in Egypt, are passing through a period of transition from one to a different political, economic and social system. With our democratic experiment, we are pioneering new horizons, seeking to liberalize our political life and our economy, setting right several imbalances and facing up problems encountered by any society in transition.

Brothers & sisters,
This homeland had been witness to several challenges that had put to the test our will and resolve, cultivated our mettle, sharpened our determination and made us more attached to our vision, principles and policies.

Yes, indeed we have new problems and challenges, but they are not intractable and we have great expectations, which we trust we can realize.

As we wind up this Congress today, we have more power, stronger will and resolve. While taking pride in our achievements over the past phase in the interest of Egypt and its people, we look forward to the future with confidence and hope.

We have more arduous work to do over the coming phase. We are approaching an important parliamentary round, imposing on the party, its government and parliamentary body major burdens and responsibilities.

Next April we will have importer local administration elections that will impose similar burdens and responsibilities on the party's members, cadres and leaderships and on all levels.

As your are leaving this Congress, I tell you: take your deliberations and discussions down to your constituencies and governorates; take the party's mission and vision down to plain citizens ; enhance your communication with their problems, concerns and aspirations and pursue your hard work in service of the homeland .

I tell you at the close of this Congress: we are pursuing our way towards a better present and future we are making new steps in reform and development as well as new achievements in various production and services sites. We protect Egypt's sovereignty and independent will. We accept no pressure or conditionality, reject any intervention in our own affairs and safeguard Egypt's stability and national security. We recognize the strategic importance of water security; nuclear stations to secure our energy needs. We defend the interests of Egypt and its people, wherever they are. To this end, we spare no effort.

Greetings and congratulations on a successful Congress.

I wish you all success.
May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessing be upon you.