Gov’t documents Sisi’s accomplishments in book

CAIRO - 7 September 2018: In a book titled “The Challenge and the Accomplishment,” the Egyptian government, presided by Moustafa Madbouly, has documented President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’ accomplishments of first four-year term (2014-2018).


“The megaprojects implemented over the last four years in various sectors have reshaped Egypt's development map and have significantly participated in improving services provided to the Egyptian citizens, [starting] from the Upper Egypt to the Delta,” said Madbouly in a press release on the the book on Friday.


Since 2014, Egypt has adopted an economic reform program, whose positive results were produced in 2018, he added, noting that the growth rate went up from 4.4 percent to 5.3 percent over the past four years. The inflation rate declined to 12.9 percent, while the unemployment rate decreased to 9.6 percent from 13.2 percent, Madbouly said.


The book shows that a total of 7,777 projects at a cost of LE 1.61 billion ($89.9 million) have been implemented during the same period. Currently, the government is carrying out a total of 3,392 projects at a cost of LE 1.13 billion, while 4,131 projects would be set up in the future. The cost of the planned projects is estimated at LE 0.17 billion.


Electricity

To overcome the crisis of power outage, the government carried out 166 projects, at a cost of LE 308 billion, to produce 52,000 megawatt. The projects included the establishment of three major power plants with 14,400 megawatts in Upper Egypt’s Beni Sueif, the New Administrative Capital, and in Brulus city.

Petroleum

A total of 69 projects at a cost of LE 728 billion were implemented in the petroleum sector, rasing high economic revenues and providing petrol products to meet people’s needs, according to the documentary book.

The Ministry of Petroleum has signed a total of 63 contracts worth LE 17.4 billion in investments. Moreover, 186 new oil and gas discoveries were announced. The most remarkable discovery is Zohr gas field in the Mediterranean Sea. Discovered in 2015 by the Italian energy company Eni, Zohr gas field has an area of 100 square meters and a depth of 1,450 meters. Around $10 billion has been invested in the project and Eni is estimating a total output of approximately 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.


Transportation

The Ministry of Transportation carried out about 380 projects to facilitate the traffic movement for 20 million passengers daily, amid the increasing population.The total cost of the projects is estimated at LE 85 billion.

As for the railway network, the ministry launched a plan to upgrade Egypt’s railway network to reduce the number of train accidents. It imported 3,000 passenger carriages and developed 1,100 level crossings. In 2012, 50 children were killed when a school bus was hit by a train at a level crossing. In 2002, a total of 300 people were killed when fire swept through a Cairo-Aswan train.

In March, President Sisi said that Egypt’s rail lines require funds ranging from LE 200 billion ($11 billion) to LE 250 billion ($14 billion) to upgrade them. A number of these projects, at a cost of LE 3.8 billion, have been executed, while the rest are scheduled to be done by 2022.

Egypt’s railway network is one of the world’s oldest networks, which transport 500 million passengers annually, according to Egyptian Railways (ENR).

Regarding the Cairo Metro, the ministry is carrying out a comprehensive developing plan for the three operating inter-Cairene metro lines, at a cost of LE 3.9 billion. Also, millions of euros were allocated to fund Egypt’s plans to improve its metro network that consists of six lines connecting stations across Greater Cairo, comprising Cairo, Giza and Qalyubia, with a total distance of about 3,232 square kilometers.


Housing

The Ministry of Housing and Public Utilities, in cooperation with the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, built 377,000 housing units for the low-income people, particularly the youth and residents of slums. The cost of the built houses was estimated at LE 60.1 billion.

Health

A total of 247 projects, at a cost of LE 24.6 billion, for the health sector have been implemented over the four years. About 376 hospital were well-equipped to meet people’s needs nationwide. Also, 1.4 million patients with hepatitis C have been treated in the framework of the anti-Hep C campaign launched by President Sisi since 2014 to announce Egypt free from Hepatitis C by 2010.


Costed at LE 18.2 billion, 54 projects were executed for the aviation sector. The Ministry of Aviation is building five new airports at a cost of LE 9.3 billion in investments; three airports have already been built in the New Administrative Capital, in addition to the Bardawil Airport in central Sinai, and Sphinx International Airport.


Additional reporting by Marina Gamil, Dunya Hassanein and Amr Mohamed Kandil