There is so much negative reporting on Egypt that it’s little wonder outsiders often get the impression this country, home to 90 million people, is on a downhill path. Yes, it has economic and security problems, but what gets overlooked is the laundry list of achievements over the past two years since President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi took office.
A hatchet piece written by Sarah Moawad who lives in the United States titled Something is stirring in Egypt is one recent example. Following a visit to Cairo she maintains she witnessed “an important turning point in the country’s history… Over the past few months, the political situation in Egypt has worsened, with no resolution on the horizon.”
However, the Egyptian people do not agree with her sad assessment. They remember the tumultuous Brotherhood era when the streets weren’t safe at night and there were hours-long — sometimes days long — electricity cuts, miles-long queues for petrol, shortages of cooking gas canisters and even bread. I still recall that the city that never sleeps, Cairo, was a ghost town after 10pm. Serious challenges remain, but throughout the country a sense of normality prevails.
Eat your heart out, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron. A poll conducted days ago by the Egyptian Centre for Public Opinion Research, known as Baseera, shows that the president enjoys an approval rating of 91 per cent, up from 78 per cent last month, an 11 per cent reduction from an earlier high, eliciting glee from the doom camp projecting inevitable further falls.
So what has the government achieved?
Firstly, Egypt’s national defence capabilities have been greatly reinforced and an effort has been made to diversify suppliers of weapons, fighter jets, helicopters and warships. Recently received from France is the first of two ordered French-manufactured Mistral-class amphibious assault ships and has purchased 24 French Rafale fighter jets. Contracts have been signed with Russia for 46 naval helicopters and advanced missiles.
Secondly, Egypt’s energy requirements are being supplemented with alternative energy in the form of wind farms, solar as well as the country’s first nuclear plant to be built with Russia cooperation 179 kilometres west of Alexandria. The Italian energy group Ena in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum has discovered the largest Mediterranean offshore natural gas field in Egyptian territorial waters scheduled to begin production at the end of 2017. Electricity production has already been doubled since the time of regular blackouts. Thirdly, the president has made the ambitious pledge that in two years there will be no slum areas in the country. Earlier last month, he inaugurated two housing projects comprising 11,000 fully-furnished apartments. The keys have been handed — or in some cases are about to be handed — to Cairo’s poorest who until now were living in windowless mud houses or in caves without electricity or running water in the mountainous area within the governorate of Mokattam. A further 160,000 units will be built over the coming two years.
“I still think I’m dreaming. Now for the first time, I can hold my head high”, said one grateful youth interviewed on the Sada el-Balad TV channel. Next year, the government will focus “on the redevelopment of 156 impoverished areas, providing improvements to homes for 340,000 people at a cost of 6.25 billion Egyptian pounds,” the Housing Minister told Al Ahram.
Fourthly, the government is striving to reduce the import of wheat. Last month, the president celebrated the first harvest gleaned from the reclamation of 1.5 feddans in Upper Egypt aimed also at providing jobs and creating new communities. Farm workers are accommodated in brand new villages complete with schools and medical centres.
Fifthly, the most deprived areas of the southern Sinai Peninsula are to be transformed in terms of new roads, infrastructure and access to drinking water provided by five desalination plants each with a capacity to produce between 10,000 and 20,000 cubic metres a day. Residents will benefit from new residential and agricultural initiatives as well as a planned industrial zone.
And despite the fact that Red Sea resorts are suffering from a lack of tourists from Europe and Russia, there is real hope for the future. A causeway to be constructed linking Egypt and Saudi is set to deliver investment and new businesses. It will fuel job growth and increase both tourism and trade. Indeed, if all goes well Egypt is poised to become a global trade hub linking Asia with Africa.
Furthermore, Russian companies are committed to setting up business in the new industrial zone close to the Suez Canal and a $5 billion (Dh18.35 billion) Chinese industrial zone is slated for Ain Sokhna, providing between 20,000 – 30,000 new jobs.
It’s worth noting too that the government has succeeded in cementing diplomatic partnerships with diverse countries and today has a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council and presides over the African Union’s Peace and Security Council. Egypt together with France also has a pivotal broker role in the resumption of Israel-Palestinian peace talks and has pledged to bring the Palestinian cause to the forefront at the UN.
Columnist and former head of Egypt’s Press Syndicate Makram Mohammad Ahmad told Sada el-Balad that Al Sissi’s achievements surpass those of all former presidents within a similar timeframe. On that he might just be right.
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British political columnist and guest television commentator with a focus on the Middle East.
