30 June Revolution: Egypt reaps fruits of development

CAIRO – 30 June 2021: Eight years ago, the June 30, 2013 Revolution took place, marking the start of the “development revolution”, in which new methods and ideas were launched in managing the country’s resources.

This revolution represented the largest practical application of thinking outside the box. This was reflected in the financial, economic and social indicators and is reflected in the data of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, a report by the Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies read last August.

Sisi, since he has assumed office in June 2014, has been keen to "make a new Egypt” and has filled the capital and other governorates and new cities with seemingly endless construction work and other development projects that directly touched the citizens’ lives.

Especially as the state is planning to inaugurate the New Administrative Capital, East of Cairo, Sisi said it would be the "birth of new republic".

Unemployment, power

Unemployment rates rose to their highest levels after the outbreak of the January 2011 revolution, as a result of losing many investments due to the security chaos, until it reached its peak with a total unemployment rate of 13.2% in 2013. Unemployment rates among males were 9.8%, and 24.2% among females.

In the wake of the June 30 revolution, and with the stability of the security and political conditions, and the return of foreign investments again, as well as national projects that attracted more than 5 million workers, the total unemployment rates in the first quarter of the year 2020 reached 7.7%. Unemployment rates among males in rural areas reached 2.9%, while it was 6.8% among urban males. As for females; It was 16.3% among rural females, and 28.4% among urban females.

One of the most obvious and influential crises on the life of the Egyptian citizen during the tenure of the Muslim Brotherhood was the frequent power outages, which exposed many citizens to material damages, and even threatened the lives of some due to the frequent power cuts.

This crisis was the result of mismanagement as well as problems rooted in the Egyptian state, as a result of the old stations being worn out, and the insufficient energy generated to satisfy the needs of all citizens.

But thanks to the state’s vision of the risks that threaten the future of energy security in Egypt, it adopted a policy of diversifying energy production sources (solar - wind energy - hydroelectric), which resulted in an increase in production capacities during the period 2013 to 2017 by 70%.

The amount of energy produced increased from 164,629 Gigawatts in the year 2012/2013 to 189,550 gigawatts in 2016/2017 through increased investment in the electricity sector.

The investment in the electricity sector reached LE 22.3 billion, resulting in an improvement in Egypt’s ranking in international reports, as Egypt’s ranking rose from 145th place among 185 to 77 from 190, so we've moved up 68 places over the past five years.

Housing, agriculture 

Among the most important projects that the state has given great attention to are the housing crisis and unplanned construction, as well as the development of unsafe slums and unplanned areas, in order to provide a decent life for citizens.

Until June 2020, 414,000 housing units were implemented within the social housing project for the youth and low-income segment, at a cost of LE 51 billion, 38% of which are in the governorates.

As for the development of slums, more than 165,000 units were implemented until June last year in 298 developed areas, at a cost of LE 41 billion.

The agricultural sector is one of the pillars of the Egyptian economy, with more than 25% of the Egyptian population working in it, in addition to being the main guarantor of Egyptian food security. Therefore, it was a primary goal in the eyes of Egyptian institutions to increase the agricultural area despite the challenges faced by the Egyptian state.

These challenges included shrinking the agricultural area as a result of building encroachments on agricultural lands, as well as the decreasing water resources as a result of population growth.

The state has overcome this challenge through good management of the available resources, and the allocation of new areas to the agricultural patch by searching for alternatives to its challenges, including recycling water so that it can be used again for agriculture.

Methods also include relying on agricultural wastewater treatment plants, where it is relied upon to cultivate more than 600,000 feddans, as well as the reclamation of the desert in light of state projects in Sinai, South Valley, Toshka, East Oweinat, and the 1.5 million feddans project, which all increased the cultivated areas in Egypt for strategic products such as wheat, sugar beets, vegetables and fruits.

The agricultural area in Egypt has now become 9.4 million feddans, after it was approximately 2.5 million feddans in 2011. This contributed to the occurrence of self-sufficiency in some agricultural commodities, and the increase in agricultural exports, which amounted to 3.5 million tons during the first half of the year.

Egypt also took the lead in citrus exports instead of Spain which took the lead for a long time.

Health sector

The health sector is one of the first and most prominent files on the agenda of the political leadership and state institutions, whose feasibility appeared during the pandemic.

The strategic plan for the development of the sector was based on several axes, including increasing the number of hospitals, beds, and developing existing hospitals, as well as raising the efficiency of the technical level and medical care through training medical cadres from doctors and nurses abroad, and launching a comprehensive health insurance system, in which the origin is the family and not the individual.

So far, the country has allocated over 400 centers to serve as coronavirus vaccination points.

Egypt has received millions of coronavirus jabs from Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Sputnik V vaccines and is planning to import millions others.

Officially, Egypt will locally produce China’s Sinovac and Russian Sputnik V vaccines and is planning to secure millions of doses annually as part of the state’s industry localization plan.

On Wednesday, Health Minister Hala Zayed said Egypt has produced on Tuesday its first 300,000 Sinovac coronavirus doses: VACSERA Sinovac, Made in Egypt.

Starting August,10-15 million Egypt-made vaccine doses will be available per month to vaccinate 40 million citizens by the end of the year, Zayed said.

Tourism

Tourism is one of the most important sources of foreign currency and national income in Egypt, in addition to its contribution to the employment of thousands of manpower, through direct and indirect job opportunities, so the state strives to develop tourism within it of all kinds to attract more tourists.

Indeed, recent years have witnessed a gradual increase in the number of tourists coming to Egypt after a general decline during the last decade.

The number of tourist arrivals reached its lowest level in 2016 with a value of 5.4 million tourists, then witnessed a gradual increase until it reached 11.3 million tourists in 2018.

These numbers are in light of the coronavirus pandemic, which the World Tourism Organization estimated that the expected losses in the tourism sector from the pandemic are approximately (20%-30%), with losses estimated at about ($300-450) billion around the world.

A study issued by the ECSS said that Egypt will receive 5 to 6 million tourists by the end of this year given the resumption of the Russian flights.

Based on studied expectations, the study said that the country will receive 40 percent of the total number of incoming tourists in 2019 (which amounted to 13 million then), meaning that 5 to 6 million tourists will have been visited the country by the end of this year.

The study referred to the package of decisions set by the Ministry of Tourism with the aim of raising the quality of tourism and the services available to tourists from all over the world. These decisions were made after taking into account the current situation with its various opportunities and threats.

With regard to the cities of the Red Sea, which are main destinations for Russian tourists, a minimum price for 4-star and 5-star rooms has been set, with the implementation of this decision starting in November 2021.

The decision stipulates that the minimum price per night for any type of accommodation per person in hotels is set at $40 in five-star hotels or its equivalent, and $28, or its equivalent, in four-star hotels, in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 1 of 1973.