Don't be too harsh on Morsi

The Minister of Planning and International Cooperation in the Egyptian government, Ashraf al-Arabi said President Mohammed Morsi meant to adopt: "A culture of accountability" by putting a 100-day timeline for the initial goals of his plan as a president. The minister urged the Egyptian people "not to be too harsh" on Morsi when assessing the first 100 days of his presidency, as this will be "illogical." Interviewed by Arabstoday, Arabi said that Morsi has came to his office through fair and free elections that were a fruit of the political force of the Egyptian revolution. He added that this fact makes him expect the opposition to be "constructive and reasonable, similar to those we find in all the civilised world's countries." Arabi admitted the shortages in direct investments from both government and private sectors is the most significant problem facing the Egyptian economy at the current stage. Unemployment has reached 12 percent in general and 30 percent among the youth while the reserves of foreign currency have seen a significant decrease as well. However, the minister revealed some signs of improvement. "Our target for this year is to achieve government investments of 43 billion EGP ($7 billion), after achieving investments of 28 billion EGP ($6.5 billion) in the last year, which was not too bad considering the tough conditions the country was going through." The minister added that the total investments expected in this year will be around 276 billion EGP ($46 billion), saying that the private sector's contribution to the annual investments has reduced from 66 percent in 2008 to 55 percent in 2012 due to the worldwide financial crisis. "That means the government is carrying out 45 percent of new investments this year. This percentage will be carried by the government, state-owned companies and state-owned economic institutions. Most of these investments will be directed at projects related to human development, transportation and sanitation. They will be funded from both the state's treasury and foreign loans and donations. Responding to the growing criticism of the foreign loans by some of Egypt's experts and political groups, the Egyptian minister said that foreign loans are always preferred to internal ones "as they guarantee transparency in the pay-back terms." Arabi noted that up to 70 percent of the state's annual budget is devoted to government salaries, commodity subsidies, and debt interests. That is a massive percentage according to the minister that requires the directing of subsidies only to the poor and to reconsidering the state's salary structure. On Egypt's economic relations with the foreign countries, Arabi emphasised that his government is open to economic cooperation with all countries all over the world, however he referred to the central and eastern African region, where the Nile river passes as a region Egypt will focus on in addition to the Far East. These countries offer Egypt the most significant economic and technical support, according to Arabi. Arabi stated that the foreign donations will fund around 1,600 projects in Egypt year, including $22 million for a project aimed at buildingon both banks of the Nile river for a 47km distance, $30 million for removing grass from the small canals, $11 million for paving 100km of roads and $37 million for renovating 17,000 school classes.