FILE- The Parliament
CAIRO – 11 July 2018: The parliamentary subcommittee, specialized in reviewing the new government’s program, gave some recommendations in its report to the program’s “Building Egyptian Citizen” axis after approving it.
The subcommittee, which is one of the committees that have been formed to review the policy statement and the new government’s program, stressed that balancing population growth and Egypt’s available resources should be achieved as stipulated in Article 41 of the Egyptian Constitution.
The report referred that the state should benefit from the increasing population through focusing on human development, exploiting youth capabilities, compensating Egyptian families for the damage of unemployment, and ensuring that every human has the right to live and get access to education and health services.
The subcommittee called for establishing the three authorities mentioned in the Health Insurance Law, including the Comprehensive Health Insurance Authority, Health Care Authority and Quality and Accreditation Authority as well as two committees for drug and diseases treatment pricing.
It also pointed out to rising the pension age for doctors of rare medical specialties to 65 years and distributing them on the remote and most needed areas.
The report further recommended supporting elderly rights and benefitting from their experience in different fields as well as establishing a fund for rare diseases such as muscle atrophy and arteriosclerosis; it also recommended raising youth awareness toward drug addiction and preparing them to meet the needs of the labor market.
Among the report's top priorities is setting a mechanism to decrease literacy rates from 29 percent to 15 percent and linking the ministries of education and youth and sports by activating sport activities in schools.
The new government’s program, delivered by Mostafa Madbouly before the Parliament on July 3 consists of five axes; the first focuses on protecting Egyptian national security, the Egyptian foreign policy in securing the national security of the Armed Forces and developing security confrontations of terrorism and trafficking as well as securing archaeological and touristic places.
The second axis is “Building Egyptian Citizen” through consolidating cultural identity, activating the role of cultural institutions and media awareness, spreading the culture of science and creativity, protecting the community from extremist ideas, and applying the first phase of the Health Insurance Law, under which 33 hospitals and 153 health care units should be established and the state should bear the treatment cost of those who cannot afford it.
The axis focuses on improving the quality of research and technology system, constructing seven international and national universities as well as eight new technology universities, and developing a school nutrition program.
This comes in line with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s plan to put building Egyptian citizens physically, culturally and intellectually among the top priorities in his second term through launching several national projects to upgrade education and health systems and to alleviate the tough living conditions.
In the same context, the third axis focuses on economic development targeting an economic growth rate of 8 percent through improving the public financial management, while the fourth axis is represented in the government program by promoting employment levels through upgrading the small and medium enterprises, in addition to developing human skills and integrating the informal sector in the formal work system.
The fifth axis aims to improve the standard of living of the Egyptian citizen by controlling population growth, expanding social safety nets and addressing societal gaps.
Earlier in June, President Sisi ordered Madbouly to form a new government to succeed that of Sherif Ismail, who resigned on June 5. The new Cabinet has sworn-in on June 14, with 12 new ministers, including the interior and defense ministers.
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