Madbouly: No gov’t is happy to cut power off; we plan to achieve Egyptians’ aspirations

CAIRO - 8 July 2024: As he starts his reign for a new term as Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly thanked President Sisi for his confidence and assignment to form a new government, where he highlighted his cabinet’s priorities to accelerate solution to critical issues facing Egyptian citizens. 

Prime Minister Madbouly’s remarks came during a special interview with the journalist Amr Khalil, on the “Extra News” TV screen on Monday.

“The Egyptian state has been living in a series of successive crises since 2011,” Madbouly said, adding: “In the end, the citizen is interested in living an easy life, so we were very careful to accelerate the steps to solve the hard currency crisis because it had an impact on everything.”

Confused pricing 

“We used to hear that people were pricing the dollar at 70 and 80 pounds, and it was said that within a year it would remain at 100 pounds, and [people used these words as reference] to set prices for goods.”

He continued: “But, we thank God that we were able, with the existing monetary policy, to have a defined price and a fixed form, and our concern is for the Egyptian economy to be able to withstand any shocks during the coming period.”

Madbouly further explained that there is a clear directive to the government that during the next two or three years, hard currency resources must be secured to cover our needs and there should be a surplus to avoid any exceptional economic crises that may occur.

Power cuts

According to Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, the state prioritize the energy challenges atop of its agenda, saying that “it must be solved first and foremost, and I am trying to explain to the citizens and reassure them about the electricity file.”

“No government will be happy to cut off electricity, but we are forced to do so,” he said, stressing “we will focus during the coming period on supporting the productive sectors to save hard currency.”

Prime Minister added “We had very difficult circumstances and the needs of the state grew and expanded in a very large way, and since the beginning, President Sisi directed the work of the infrastructure so that there would be no crisis, and this what has happened".

He continued: “We now have stations and electricity transmission and distribution networks sufficient for the next ten years, but the problem is that generating this energy requires fuel at a financial cost, a large portion of which is imported abroad, and all our concern today is how to secure this issue.”

Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, said that as of the third week of July, the plan to reduce electricity loads will be stopped, adding that there is a ministerial group for industrial development that exists with the same human development philosophy and meets weekly, including all relevant ministers to make decisions and follow up with investors and manufacturers to solve their problems.

National Dialogue recommendations

Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, confirmed that before forming the government, he met with the Board of Trustees of the National Dialogue twice, explaining that it was agreed that as soon as the government is formed, serious steps will begin in order to implement all the outcomes that were agreed upon with the Board of Trustees. 

He pointed out that he is following the timings and meetings, stressing that there will be a monthly meeting with the Board of Trustees of the National Dialogue to review everything that happens and what has been implemented regarding the outcomes of the National Dialogue, explaining that the distinctive thing about the National Dialogue is that it represents all segments of Egyptian society from the far right to the far north. 

He noted that all the recommendations of the national dialogue came out, and there will be great care to implement them in the coming period.

Deepening industry

During the interview, Dr. Mostafa Madbouly said that the new cabinet’s focus is on achieving a set of targets, including: the greatest availability of goods, because the more goods become available, the more competition occurs internally, and prices goes down, while as long as supply is less than demand, there will be an increase in prices.

“Production materials are being released in a large way, and what is important is the move to deepen the industry and not rely entirely on importing these materials or production requirements, and this is part of the industry file we will work on,” he added.

He continued: “We have determined with the Central Bank and the Economic Group how to reduce inflation. This is an important thing for the coming period. In the last two months, rates have begun to decline, but we must be aware that we still have a period of time before we can recover.”

He further added: “We have had two very difficult years, with very severe economic repercussions, and in order for us to be able to come out of it, the fiscal year 2024-2025 is ahead of us, with a governance framework, rationalization of spending, encouragement of the private sector, and control of the markets, then, we can achieve that by the end of 2024-2025.”

Egypt’s soft power

Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, said “we always talk about Egypt’s soft power and its cultural and civilizational influence, and this file requires a great effort in the coming period to restore Egypt’s soft power and its influence internally on our youth.”

He explained that youths represent the vast majority of Egyptian citizens, therefore, it is very important in the coming period to re-attract the youth and preserve the national Egyptian identity, stressing that the axis of human building is the government’s top priority.

Madbouly added that renewing religious discourse was clearly part of the conversation with the new Minister of Endowments, and it will be a top priority in his work.

Educational aspect

Mostafa Madbouly stressed that the most important thing is that the service provided to the citizen be at the highest level in terms of quantity and quality, and to reduce the number of students in classes.

The Prime Minister stressed that the quality of educational content is important, and we began to change and modernize the educational content, and pay attention to the teacher, in pre-university education. We also built a huge number of universities in partnership with the private sector, and we introduced the idea of ​​private universities, which President Sisi adopted

Empowering citizens

Mostafa Madbouly pointed out that he is working with his team to develop a detailed program to achieve the aspirations of the Egyptian citizen. 

He stressed that he is always aware of what happening in the Egyptian streets, and that he makes sure to be updated and really all daily reports on social networking sites.

“The state has paid attention to technological universities to qualify those who graduated from education for the labor market. The focus has also been on the size of the facilities that we have established in the health field, and the work to improve service in the villages,” he added. 

Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister also said, “I support the Egyptian citizen and his request to achieve his dreams and demands.”

“Over the past years, we have made great strides in the education infrastructure, and we have solved many problems regarding the numbers of schools, hospitals, and universities,” Madbouly said.