I talk to you on the 35th anniversary of the glorious October war victory. Today we celebrate an unforgettable day and a landmark event in Egypt's contemporary history. It is a glorious day that will remain alive in the nation's memory to be celebrated generation after another.

The Egyptian people have been maintaining their contributions throughout generations and every generation relayed the helm to the next generation.

For one of our generations resisted the British occupation and others lived in the age of the revolution with all its achievements and failures. Others went into October war and removed from Sinai the stigma of occupation and restored to the nation its sovereignty.

The October generation will remain the source of inspiration to all Egypt's generations. As this generation gave an example for sacrifice for the sake of the nation.

This generation experienced the shock of the 1967 defeat and occupation. But they did not kneel down and their will has never broken up. They set aside funds from their every day earning to rebuild the Egyptian armed forces and offered their lives and blood to overcome the defeat and realize their victory.

This generation did not give in to the calls of despair and skepticism. They bore the bitterness of the defeat and its painful consequences. Their faith in this nation and people has never shaken and they went into a bitter attrition war and a liberation war until they liberated their lands and restored their pride.

The solidarity of the Egyptian people and steadfastness of their internal front were the key to victory. And the epic of the victory was a true testimony that this people are capable to successfully undertake impossible missions.

While we are celebrating the anniversary of October War we should salute this great generation who refused to give in to defeat and achieved victory.

We salute our brave Armed Forces. We salute their courageous heroic acts and sacrifices and we bow our heads in respect of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their nation.

We also salute the soul of late president Anwar Sadat who bravely took the decision of war out of his faith in God and confidence in the Egyptian people and Armed Forces. So, he achieved that victory and became the hero of war and peace.

Egypt's youth of today did not witness this phase of Egypt's modern history. They did not live the bitterness of the 1967 defeat and the 1973 thrilling victory.

After 35 years since October War, we are now facing different conditions and situations. Egypt's current generation are living in a different context and facing different challenges and priorities and also having different aspirations.

Such a state of affairs is reflecting the Egyptian, regional and international developments over these years.

Egypt's current generation have been born in the 1980s the past century after we restored Sinai by war and peace. We had fierce confrontation with terrorism and extremism. Our relations with the Arab countries were severed and we had a dilapidated infrastructure and a war-consumed economy that suffered from weak structures and resources along with foreign debt burdens.

The Egyptian internal scene has seen massive changes over the years of the current generation with all people's powers pooling efforts together to combat terrorism. We kept peace and did not allow anybody to jeopardize it. We restored our relations with the Arab countries.

We cut down our foreign debt by the half and set up a developed and expanded infrastructure. We managed to realize several achievements and reforms in many production and services sectors. And now we have a stronger economy that is capable of standing up to the pressures of an increasing population that approaches 80 million people compared to around 43 million people in early 1980s .

This current generation have seen similar developments at our regional context with the region experiencing the Second Gulf War and then Iraq war. The region also witnessed, and is still witnessing, several crises and spots of tension along with several cases of sectarian divisions, bloodletting and instability, including faltering peace efforts and the situation in Lebanon, Iraq and Darfur together with the conditions in the Gulf region with mounting controversy over the Iranian nuclear program.

The world has also seen during that period unprecedented developments with the backtracking of the bi-polar international order giving room to a one-polar order. Globalization, with its pros and cons, became a global phenomenon. Also, the world has seen a shaky situation in the collective security order and multilateral economic and trade system. We have witnessed in the past few years new emerging powers and other powers fading away allowing the emergence of a new world order that is still under formation.

Actually we are living in a different context compared to that on the heels of the October war 1973. We now deal with new facts inside Egypt and outside it at the regional and international levels. So where do we stand amid all these developments?

We have realized several achievements through our reform measures. We have achieved an increase in investments and economic growth rates.

The current total budget hit 380 billion Egyptian pounds compared to mere 12.5 billion pounds in the early 1980s. Funds allocated for salaries, pensions and social security increased to 113 billion EGP against 2.6 billion EGP in 1981. Also, allocations appropriated for subsidizing basic commodities increased from two billion EGP to 96 billion over the same period. Also allocations for education and health care similarly increased.

Actually, we have covered a long distance through the path. We have no alternative but forging ahead in the liberalization of our economy so that we can deal with the requirements of our current age with its own language and spirit. We follow suit other countries that liberalized their economies such as Russia and China.

We have no alternative but keeping up what we have achieved of high economic growth rates year after another. As this is the only way to create more jobs and improve the living conditions of our people in general and of the limited-income brackets in particular.

Actually we are facing several challenges. The danger of terrorism and instability is still jeopardizing us and the region at large. We still have to face the challenge of overpopulation that constitutes a burden over our limited resources. We still have to face the challenge of upgrading education so that it could cope up with the labor market needs.

We have to cope up with the challenges of increasing our productivity and improving production and services sectors. We have to face the challenge of combating poverty and developing squatter areas along with achieving social justice so that the fruits of development and growth could be shared by all the Egyptians.

Standing up to these challenges requires full awareness of their magnitude and pooling all efforts together to overcome them. These challenges should never distract our attention from the goal of this phase and the coming one; namely, maintaining high investment and economic growth rates.

Our society is seeing real action that requires viable participation by all the sons of the nation in that national action in all sectors and fields. This is a required participation which I call for and encourage. Such participation should be committed to law and legitimacy along with the national interests away from overbidding and seeking personal gains.

I have been a witness of the years of defeat and victory and a witness of the contributions of a great generation of the nation. I tell you frankly while we are celebrating the victory anniversary that Egypt is still waiting for more contributions.

After so many years serving the nation, I tell you all work hard to build Egypt's future with hope and confidence. I tell our people and particularly the young people we are capable of creating a better future as we have clear priorities and policies that were proven viable to attain our goals. We have our will and determination in addition to the minds and hands of our youths. After all we always rely on the providence of the trustworthy and supporting God.