Egyptian President says gathered citizens’ info shall be strictly protected, regulated

CAIRO – 7 April 2021: Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said personal information gathered by the state of each person shall be strictly protected as he inaugurated on Wednesday the secured and smart documents complex (NASPS) in the New Administrative Capital.

Sisi said the personal information about each citizen is highly sensitive, adding the state authorities shall be allowed to only view information that are related to it.

Sisi said the technological capability has merits and demerits that the state should be aware of.

Digitizing the state and achieving the governance of procedures contribute to curbing corruption, Sisi said, adding that the secured and smart documents complex comes at a cost of up to LE 1 billion.

The lands of the state and the Endowments Ministry should be secured by the digitized documents issued by the NASPS, Sisi added.

Sisi also urged caring about the general health of the staff at the new complex. He said he realized that some of the staff who appeared in the complex videos suffer from overweight.

Speaking during the ceremony, Finance Minister Mohamed Maeet said the complex aims to establish an integrated system between the ministry and the complex.

He added that the complex will contribute to curbing forgery and smuggling, reducing public treasury losses and protecting the rights of the state and citizens.

Education Minister Tarek Shawki said ooperation with the new complex will help the ministry handle a system that consists of 23 million students, 55,000 schools and 1.6 million teachers.

Shawki said the "ambitious" project of the digital identity of students, in cooperation with the complex, will help document information about each student throughout his/her educational journey.

Justice Minister Omar Marwan said the ministry has cooperated with the complex to digitize the ministry's documents and combat forgery.

 

Water concerns

Speaking during the ceremony, Sisi said the ancient Egyptian civilization was based on water that naturally ran here and there, adding that this civilization will continue.

Sisi said the state does not only need a military power, but also power in economy and other fields.

Addressing Egyptians, Sisi said the concerns expressed on social media on the water file are justified but this shall be reflected on the citizens' behavior to save water.

Sisi said he he started to worry about the future of water in Egypt since the 25th of January, 2011, adding that this was the starting point of the water challenge.

GERD dispute

Sisi urged Ethiopia to cooperate with Egypt on the water file, saying “all options are open” in the event of any harm to a single water drop.

“I tell our Ethiopian brothers: we should not reach the level that you mess with a water drop in Egypt, because all options are open,” Sisi said

Rounds of negotiations among Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have reached a deadlock several times to reach an agreement of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

The African Union-sponsored talks this week held in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa also failed to reach an agreement on the path of negotiations among the three countries.

Egypt and Sudan insist that a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam should be reached before Ethiopia implements the second phase of dam filling.

Ethiopia, on the other hand, reiterated that it would complete filling the dam in July whether an agreement is reached or not.

“Cooperation between each other and building together is much better than that we disagree and struggle,” Sisi said.

“We must have been learned from at least the challenges that we have witnessed; we saw the extent of cost that was caused by any confrontation,” Sisi said, mentioned the military confrontations in 1962 and 1967.

On water share, Sisi said the current water path from Ethiopia to Egypt is a divine creation. He added that through the past years, the Ethiopian public opinion has been unsatisfied with this path.

“It is God who put the water there and who made it come to Egypt. If the Egyptian land was a high ground, then nothing would have come,” Sisi stated.

“What God created would not be changed by human beings,” Sisi added.

The president said Egypt respects the development goals of other nations without a harm to the Egyptian water rights.

“I have not altered my words; we respect the development [goals of other nations] to improve the situation of their peoples, withing the framework that this does not harm the Egyptian water interests,” Sisi said.

“We are coordinating measures with Sudan, we announce to the world the justice of our cause within the framework of the international law and concerned international norms on the movement of transboundary rivers,” Sisi said.