Re-election of Mubarak: An Expression of the Nation's Conscience

The big yes given by the Egyptian people on September 26, 1999 to President Mohammad Hosni Mubarak for a new term in office was an overwhelming endorsement of his record of achievements as well as his platform for the future of the nation. It was an affirmative vote for a leader who could translate the nation's aspirations into tangible achievements and managed to push Egypt forward to a highly visible position on both regional and international scene.

Over the past 18 years, President Mubarak has managed to carefully steer Egypt's ship through rough seas to safe shores, pulling through many a difficulty. When he assumed office in 1981, the country was suffering from a worn-out and crumbling infrastructure, acute shortage of basic services and, in short, a deteriorating economy.
Amidst such difficulties, the Egyptian leader launched a daring exercise of development and reconstruction , with the object of ameliorating the standard of living of ordinary citizens. The first well-calculated step was the convocation of an economic conference , where Egyptian economic think-tanks discussed and diagnosed problems afflicting Egyptian economy. An ambitious remedial plan was devised to surmount crises and problems through a gradual reform rather an electric shock approach.

In order to alleviate public suffering, vital decisions were taken by the leadership to complete infrastructure projects, paving the way for implementing a tough but well-balanced economic reform programme. With the successful implementation of this programme, the stage was set for the economy to embark on a chain of mega projects in several parts of the country. These projects were envisaged as the most appropriate solution for overcrowdedness in the narrow valley , let alone wider prospects of development and additional employment opportunities for the increasingly growing population.

Concrete achievements.
In the field of production and service sectors, the number of factories and plants rose from 1211 in 1981 to 5964 in 1998. Low-income categories were the focal point of all development plans devised to create additional employment opportunities for the rising generations. Industrial complexes rose from just four in 1981 to 33 in 1999.
Over the period 1992 to 1999, some 10,000 schools were built, providing education to 17.5 million students. In this connection it is worth recalling that over 109 years ( 1882 - 1992 ), only 6,092 schools had been built. The number of universities jumped from 13 with 229 colleges in 1981 to 21 with 454 colleges in 1999.

Special attention was given scientific research. Under the fourth 5-year plan ( 1997- 2002) appropriations for the State Ministry of Scientific Research and Technology soared to LE 1.14 billion ; sevenfold those under the preceding plan.
In the field of health services, central hospitals increased from 169 in 1981 to 236 in 1998, rural hospitals from 336 to 385, physicians from 52,000 to 145,000 and hospital beds from 84,000 to 130,000.
Sports facilities leapt from 1,970 in 1981 to 6,932 in 1998.

Since 1981 LE 71 billion have been earmarked to establish an integrated network of transport; railways, highways, bridges, tunnels, seaports, airports and telecommunications. Railroad length rose from 4,882 km in 1981 to 9,355 km in 1998 and asphalt road length from 17,700 km to 42,000 km. Civil airports rose from six in 1981 serving 6.5 million passengers to 19 in 1998, serving 13.5 million.
The Greater Cairo Underground Metro, that effectively contributed to the alleviation of traffic jams in the capital, providing a safe and speedy means of transports to hundreds of thousands of Greater Cairo residents, is indeed one of the most outstanding achievements under President Mubarak.

Telecommunications have undergone a substantial improvement. The number of telephone lines leapt by tenfold from 543,000 in 1981 to 5,9 million in 1998. A new sophisticated cellular service was launched in 1996 with an initial capacity of 100,000 lines , reaching at present 500,000. The massive enhancements introduced to the fields of communications and transport have been instrumental in achieving the goals of the economic development.

Egyptian village, productive
Under Mubarak the Egyptian village was being gradually turned into a productive unit, by injecting additional funds and supporting voluntary and self- help popular contributions. Under a national project for the development of Egyptian village 11,000 small- size enterprises were completed , with LE 613 million in state contributions and LE 373 million in popular self-help contributions.

Economic Reform, Sustained
The successful economic reform and structural adjustment process has resulted in :
- Building a broad base for commodity and service production
- Completing market-oriented economic, regulatory and control institutions to ensure sound and smooth economic transition and reinforcing regulatory institutions in charge of ensuring transparency and efficiency in economic and financial business,.
- Ensuring secure transition to market economy, resulting in a rise in private sector investments in development projects from LE 1.3 billion in 1981 to LE 43 billion in 1999, accounting foe 71 % of aggregate investments as well as increase in this sector's share of GDP to about 71 %.

President Mubarak looking with hope and optimism at the Nile water flowing into Sinai
Social Dimension
A peculiar feature of the Egyptian experiment was that social development has proceeded hand in hand with economic development , thus shielding the stability of the country against social upheavals or turmoils.
Due care was given to low- income brackets and economic burdens were equally distributed to various segments of the community.
Social insurance coverage rose from 10 million beneficiaries in 1982 to 17 million in 1998, while health insurance net now covers about 27 million citizens, i.e.; one half of the population.

Embarking onto Mega Projects
With his deep insight, President Mubarak realised that since the old Nile valley could no longer accommodate the soaring increase in population, it was inevitable to move out to wider horizons over the vast expanse of Egypt's mostly unexploited areas. This marked a fresh drive to map out a new chart of reconstruction and urbanization all over the country. A host of giant development projects were launched with the object of both improving the living conditions of the present generation and open up new opportunities for generations to come.

Toshka Project
On January 9, 1997, the leader gave the go-ahead to Toshka project, also known as the New Delta .The project consists of a 310-km- long canal that carries water from Lake Nasser to Baris Oasis at a total cost of LE 1.5 million as well as a huge lifting station at a total cost of LE 1.5 billion. Reclamation works are expected to start for an initial area of 500,000 feddans. Within a short span since the project was started, 40 kilometers have been dug in the 50-km-long main canal, while four 168-km-long sub-branches serving an area of 80.000 km are to be opened soon.

Economic and technical feasibility studies have proved that up to 3,3 million feddan are suitable for cultivation, expected to provide 700,000 employment opportunities . Quite a good number of well-established Egyptian and Arab investors have already acquired vast tracts of land for agricultural development. Export- oriented production is a principal target for the project , where high- quality chemical- free agricultural products are expected to be highly competitive on world market.

East El-Owainat project
Located in the south west of Egypt 's Western Desert, the project covers an area of half million feddans of which some 220.000 feddans are about to yield fruit. The climate and nature of soil allow for early cultivation and harvest of high-value, chemical free export-oriented crops.

Darb al-Arbaein project
Extending from Baris Oasis towards borders with Sudan, this project is expected to add 12750 feddans to the green area of Egypt.
North Suez Gulf Development Project
This project depends on integrated development of the entire coastal zone around the Suez Gulf to the south up to Ras Sidr to the East and al- Ein al-Sokhna to the west. This will include tourist, port services, industrial / free-zone projects, in addition to a hub port at al- Ein al-Sokhna Recently a major 10 million-sq. m-petrochemical plant has been established jointly with both China and Japan. Other plants for reinforcing steel bars, metal anodizing, sheet metal, ceramic , porcelain and sanitary ware are under construction.

An International Hub Port at Port-Said
The East Port Said Development project is designed to help Egypt efficiently face the challenges of the 21St. Century. The scheme aims at establishing a international hub port at the northern end of the Suez Canal towards the Mediterranean. The project also comprises a huge industrial zone, a port administration area in addition to a tourist area and huge fish plantations, providing about 250,000 employment opportunities.

Development of Sinai
Since Sinai was liberated, an aggressive scheme has been drawn up to redistribute population and increase agricultural production. To this end, a major irrigation project was launched to carry water from the Nile branch to Sinai, namely as-Salam Canal. The 262 - km-long canal will provide irrigation water to cultivate 620,000 feddans on both the east and west bank of the Suez Canal. Phase I of the project including the excavation of 78 km of the canal course and infrastructure works have been already completed
The high rate of progress scored by these mega projects underscores President Mubarak's statement that they are geared to bring about a qualitative shift n Egypt's economy , by addressing our essential problems through radical solutions.
Enhancing Democratic Practice Since he assumed office in 1981, President Mubarak has always sought to enhance democratic practice, backing up freedom of expression and opinion within an objective and rational framework.

Political parties , which, under Mubarak, rose from four to 14, are free to practice their political activities within full legal and political guarantees.
President Mubarak meets from time to time with intellectuals and pressmen in open hearted dialogues. While affirming that the written word should not used as a tool of instigation or intellectual terrorism , he equally emphasizes that all opinions and schools of thought are welcome as long as they add up to the public interest.

An Outstanding International Standing for Egypt
Over his years in office, President Mubarak has managed to re-invigorate Egypt's relations with all world countries. Through relentless diplomatic efforts, Egypt could regain its pivotal and key role in the region, with balanced relations with all effective players on the international scene.
Mubarak has applied his international weight and practical rational approach in support of the Palestinian cause, strongly backing up the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people as well as Arab and Palestinian negotiators within the Middle East peace process (MEPP). No wonder, Egypt has hosted a number of MEPP - related events in addition to the Peacemakers Conference in 1996. Mubarak has also played a ignificant role in bringing about peace and stability in the region and defusing crises between several countries.

An African Outstanding Role
In recognition of his key role in working out reconciliation between African countries, Mubarak was elected chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1989 and in 1993.
Within his efforts to establish international peace, Mubarak called for freeing the ME region of weapons of mass destruction, urging funds wasted on armament be channelled to developmen and welfar.
These efforts had culminated in signining on April 11, 1996 the Cairo Trearty declaring Africa a nuclear-weapon- free- zone.

Egypt Supports Arab issues
Acting as usual on its own unwavering policy lines, Egypt participated in liberating Kuwait and strongly stood against the partition and interference in the internal affairs of Iraq. Since international sanctions were imposed on Lybia in 1992, President Mubarak has spares no effort for backing up Libya in reaching a peaceful, equitable and acceptable solution to Lockerbie issue. Egypt had urged Lybia to accept UN proposal to hand over the Lybian suspects for trial before a Scottish court to be stationed in the Hague.
On the other hand President Mubarak has always sought to widen scope of political and economic relations and exchange technical expertise with Asian countries.

President Mubarak's tenure witnessed a major shift to development diplomacy, under which Egypt's foreign relations were geared to serve socio-ecenomic development projects. Therefore, in recent years. Egypt's foreign relations were based on partnership rather than aid and grants by foeign donors. This orientation was most expressed in President Mubarak's visits to China, South Korea and Japan ( April 1999) and USA ( July 1999 ), during which many signifiacant cooperattion and partnership agreements were signed in economic, commercial and investment areas in addition to transfer of technology.