President Mubarak's electoral platform
Brothers and sisters, sons and daughters:
We are on the brink of an important stage in our nation's history. This is a turning point for all Egyptians, a seminal moment for our nation's future. We look forward to this future to bring more development, freedom and democracy. Getting prepared to this future I present my electoral platform, which comprises six key programs that seek to meet the aspirations of the Egyptians, pledging to honour my promises in this regard.
1- Free citizens in a democratic country
This is a pivotal element in Mubarak's electoral platform. It contains a series of political reforms to be implemented over the next presidential term. They aim to accelerate the pace of Egypt's political reform. This program details a series of constitutional and legislative reforms to strike a balance between the different branches of the Government against the backdrop of an amended article 76 of the constitution which opens the door for competitive president elections. The program also aims to make decision-making a business of the municipal level, enhance women's and political parties' representation in Parliament and reinforce the independence of the judiciary. These reforms will bring about more civil liberties, transparency in decision-making, and freedom of expression through liberalising media.
The constitutional reforms will ring in the following:
1- Enhancement of the role of Parliament in supervising the executive authority.
2- Trimming the President's exceptional powers granted him at times of emergency.
3- Reform of the electoral system to increase women's and political parties' representation.
4- Drafting an anti-terror bill to replace the emergency law.
5- Greater decentralisation to give the local authority more supervisory and executive powers.
6- Reinforcing the independence of the judiciary through: abolishing the Supreme Council for the Judiciary and abolishing the Public Socialist Prosecutor.
7- Formulating new laws in a way that is convenient to current conditions. This will open the way for the desired economic progress.
Legislative reforms
The Program aims to continue the process of legislative reform to keep up with the requirements of the new stage. However, the following steps must be taken:
1- Enhancing independence of the judiciary by amending the Judicial Authority Law.
2- Reviewing the preventing detention system to protect citizens' rights.
3- Reviewing the Penal Code and the laws regulating civil and commercial disputes to protect citizens' rights.
4- Sketching out an act to guarantee freedom of information to allow for more transparency as far as Government decisions are concerned. This will give citizens the freedom to demand information and circulate it as they want.
5- Devising laws that protect citizens' rights, such as: a Consumer Protection Law, establishing specialised economic courts and invigorating role of trade unions.
Freedom of speech
The Electoral Program outlines measures to allow for greater freedom of speech reinforcing the freedom of the press and the public's right to information. Restructuring media would be of extreme importance here. The following steps must be taken:
1- Founding an independent media body to determine the standards of radio and television broadcasting.
2- Adopting the necessary legislative amendments to allow for greater private sector participation in radio and television broadcasting.
3- Invigorating Government-owned press institutions to bolster their independence and efficiency in delivering their messages to the public.
4- Adopting legislative amendments monitor media offences.
5- Adopting Legislative amendments that ensure a balance between the various powers and secure citizens' rights and public freedoms. These amendments must also boost political parties, increase women's participation in public life and foster the municipal councils.
President Mubarak put forward an ambitious electoral platform that contains a comprehensive reform agenda for Egypt's political, social, and economic life. This program, now backed by a popular electoral mandate, constitutes the blueprint for the Government over the next six years. The president's program takes priority in political reform. This is based on a vision that allows citizens to live freely in a democratic country. The program embodies the president's belief that citizens' participation is the basis for a good future. The establishment of a democratic system ultimately rests on the legal, constitutional, and institutional pillars that provide for greater political competition, increased citizens' participation in political life, and proper balance between the different branches of Government. Were it not for the amendment of article 76 of the constitution, reform would not have started here. The reform agenda comprises further constitutional and legislative amendments.
The president hereby continues his political reform program in the light of his vision in this regard. He aims to achieve the following:
1- Empower Parliament to monitor the activities of the executive authority.
2- Strike a balance between the executive and legislative branches.
3- Bolster the independence of the judiciary; and increase women's representation in Parliament.
Further changes will provide the constitutional framework for many of our key reform objectives. These objectives include replacing the emergency with a new anti-terrorism law, fostering the power of local administration and sketching out a new law for elections to open the war for greater representation on the part of political parties.
Our vision for constitutional reform will be complemented by the following:
1- Legislative changes to bolster civil and political rights
2- Reviewing the laws regulating the activities of the judiciary to foster its independence
3- Reviewing administrative detention systems, and the penal code to ensure greater protection of civil liberties
4- Adopting a new anti-terror law to replace the emergency law
2- Jobs for our youth
The second pledge is a clear and straightforward commitment to create 4.5 million jobs over the next six years. To achieve this, President Mubarak's electoral platform has put forward a comprehensive package of programs titled "jobs for our youth" which seeks to secure jobs in the industrial, agricultural and tourism sectors for Egypt's youth.
A- Micro-lending system
This program aims to find jobs for 600,000 youth in the forthcoming 6 years in the micro-scale projects with a total capital of LE3 billion with an average of LE500 million per year.
It is therefore within the private sector that we seek to achieve our overall employment objectives. The package proposed centres on five specific programs as follows:
1- The activation of 'micro-lending' for small businesses, which proved ineffective in the past as banks did not have specialised information about that type of lending.
2- Banks have to establish new micro-lending specialised branches for youth let alone establishing a lending network through the post offices.
3- Strict guarantees should not be imposed on youth when applying for a loan.
4- Formulating new conditions to help reschedule the debts in cases of financial problems.
5- Improving technical support systems in pre and post production stages.
6- Granting 60,000 loans that range from LE5000-10000 each.
7- Creating 100,000 jobs each year.
B- Enhancing the labour market
This program provides about 90,000 jobs in small-scale projects with a total funding of LE60 billion during the next six years. This project will consist of the following:
1- Banks will finance small-scale projects in the fields of industry, agriculture, transport, trade, information technology and other production activities
2- Banks will deal directly with clients.
* The project will offer help to those who have problems repaying their debts to banks.
* Banks will establish specialised offices to provide technical aid.
* Drawing up suitable policies to regulate bankruptcy cases.
3- Annual projects of around 2,000 with a capital that ranges between LE500,000 to LE5 million.
4- New investments of around LE10 billion in small- and micro-scale projects.
5- The program will create around 150,000 jobs either directly or indirectly.
C: Construction of 1,000 Factories
1- This will create 1.5 million jobs by building about 1,000 new factories with a capital of about LE100 billion, LE17 billion annually.
2- About 3222 factories have been constructed during the last years in new industrial cities like 6th October, 10th Ramadan and Sadat City. In Upper Egypt around 1778 factories are under construction.
3- Some factories did not achieve the desired success due to incorrect feasibility studies.
4- Egypt's industrial infrastructure has witnessed a breakthrough.
The program will establish 1,000 factories trying to do the following:
1- Getting the private sector more involved to secure the presence of modern technologies.
2- Factories must get an ISO within the first 18 months of operation.
3- Pouring LE17 billion in investments annually of which the private sector will provide LE8.5 billion.
4- Creating 250,000 direct and indirect jobs annually.
5- Applying new 25 industrial development programs.
D- Desert reclamation
This program will create 420,000 jobs in 400 new villages in the desert:
* Around 2.6 million acres have been reclaimed so far.
* Using international agreements in the field of agriculture in opening new markets for Egyptian agricultural products.
* Cultivating vast areas to bolster exportation.
The aforementioned program seeks to reclaim an additional one million acres during the next six years, restructure the Bank for Development & Agricultural Credit, encourage villages to cultivate one main crop only and establish agricultural cooperatives to help farmers manage their affairs.
The program also strives to create 70,000 jobs in the agriculture sector and offer farmers help as far as fertilisers, seeds, new crops, pesticides and new markets are concerned.
E- Invigorating the tourism industry
This program contains a plan to advance the tourism industry in Egypt to increase the flow of tourists to 14 million annually by 2011. Planned investments - both foreign and local - of LE 48 billion will be poured on constructing 750 hotels raising the number of rooms to 240,000 over the next six years.
3- Quality of Life
A better living standard for the less privileged
Bettering quality of life for citizens is one of the pillars of President Mubarak's electoral platform. This entails a series of initiatives in housing, education, healthcare, transportation, infrastructure, clean water and sewage system networks.
Main points of the program
1- The program offers medical insurance to all Egyptians by 2010 regardless of their financial resources on the following bases:
* Participants in the medical insurance system pay part for the insurance while the State pays for the less privileged.
* These payments are the financial resources of the medical insurance program.
* The medical insurance system covers all public and private hospitals.
* Citizens have the freedom to choose the hospital where they want to receive treatment.
* Establishing an agency to manage hospitals in a good way.
* Upgrading hospitals according to a six-year plan.
* Holding training courses for hospital managers.
* Devising programs to raise hygiene standards.
2- Education modernisation
This program seeks to construct 3,500 new schools and train 400,000 teachers over the next six years. Funding for these schools will come from both the private sector and the public. The program also seeks to promote vocational education by establishing 250 new schools. Besides, the Program will create a specialised Education Accreditation Authority to monitor the quality of education and improve them. A new program for training teachers and school headmasters will also be held. The program for modernising education will train teachers of all specialisations to create a generation that is up to the hefty responsibilities of its job.
3- Housing program
The program seeks to do the following:
* Subsidise the construction of 500,000 new housing units for youth
* Construct 3,500 new schools
* Provide medical insurance for citizens
The program provides one million citizens with home ownership over a period of six years. It also builds 85,000 housing units annually, improve randomly built areas by guaranteeing property rights in those areas while also extending water and electricity services, schools, medical care and security services.
The transport sector is also a top priority. It includes licensing companies in the governorates to offer public transport services, improving the overall quality of transport, constructing a third underground line in Cairo and establishing 12,000 kilometres of new roads. A central commitment supplies the remaining 200 villages with potable water (Potable water has already been extended to 96% of Egyptian villages) with an investment capital of $1.5 billion. The project means to improve water networks connecting villages with main sewage centres.
The program's sewage budget amounts to LE25 billion during the coming six years. It will benefit villages in Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta as well.
The program includes a sanitation project to conserve the environment and encourage cooperation between the civil society and the executive bodies to improve sanitation.
4- Future securing: increasing incomes and social security
There are 5.2 million civil servants in Egypt. Added to this are 500,000 in economic bodies and 500,000 in the public sector. Salaries have doubled in the last seven years. The program would double the basic salaries of 3.5 million low rank civil servants during the next six years. It will also increase the salaries of the remaining categories by 75%.
Raising income levels for Egyptians is a top priority in President Mubarak's electoral program. The program aims at sketching out income and pension schemes to provide security for wage earners and the elderly.
The program also aims to draw up make a new salary scheme. The emphasis on the social component of reform is one of the pillars of our reform effort. It is even a central ingredient in President Mubarak's election platform.
The Program comprises a comprehensive plan to raise salaries and reform the pension system. The program specially aims to improve the living standards of civil servants. It means to offer help to workers in disorganised economic activities through flexible contracts and insurance that suits their limited incomes.
The program also includes a strategy to develop the pension system in Egypt with plans to create 1,000 new social security and pension funds for citizens who do not have insurance. It also seeks to double the number of families receiving social security benefits from 650,000 to 1.3 million. The program targets those who work in the informal sector devising new legislation that allows for more flexible employment contracts with social security.
The goal for raising income levels can be achieved through increasing productivity with a focus on the private sector. Ongoing measures focus on productivity increase in the industrial sector in particular. This can be done with a view to reducing the potential for inflation if salary levels are raised. The aforementioned steps constitute the cornerstone of a forward looking industrial policy which includes providing new industrial enterprises with lands at low prices, an ambitious industrial modernisation program and a determined drive to further liberalise trade.
5- A strong & secure Egypt: leading regional and international roles
First, supporting the establishment of a Palestinian State
* Training Palestinian police to bolster security within the newly founded state
* Drawing up a provision for technical support of the Palestinians to help them build their state on the legislative and the technical levels.
* Rebuilding the Palestinian economy through the following:
1- Forming an Egyptian-Palestinian joint council to foster economic ties between the two countries
2- Providing all facilities for Palestinian products to enter Egypt.
3- Establishing an industrial zone inside the Egyptian side of Rafah and inviting contracting companies to implement reconstruction projects in Gaza.
4- Increasing educational scholarships to Palestinian students in Egyptian universities.
5- Making for an easier passage from Palestine to Egypt and vice versa.
6- Increasing financial aid to the Palestinian Authority.
7- Increasing Egypt's share in f Al-quds and Al-Aqsa funds to LE 11 million.
Third, full integration with Sudan
The program focuses on invigorating Egypt's role in Sudan through the following:
1- Bolstering efforts aiming at forging a peace deal between the north and the south of Sudan.
2- Backing the mission of Egyptian supervisors in Darfur.
3- Mediating to settle inter -Sudan disputes.
4- Implementing the Four Freedoms agreement in tandem with the Sudanese government.
Integration with Sudan can be achieved through the following steps:
1- Completing the land travel network between the two countries.
2- Implementing bilateral trade pacts with the government of Sudan.
3- Bolstering trade exchange between Egypt and Sudan.
4- Playing a greater role in reconstructing the south of Sudan.
5- Establishing projects in south Sudan to boost reconstruction efforts.
6- Opening an Egyptian consulate in Juba, the capital of the south for it to be a bridge between the southerners and Egyptians.
7- Increasing Egyptian peacekeepers in Darfur.
Solidarity to secure Iraq's stability and unity
The program seeks to increase dialogue with Iraq's factions to preserve Iraq's unity in the light of UN Security Council Resolution 1546. The program also seeks to offer Egyptian expertise in the reconstruction of post war Iraq, train Iraqi police and invigorate the Egyptian-Iraqi joint committee to foster trade exchange.
Fourth, bolstering inter Arab relations
A free trade zone will herald full trade cooperation among Arab countries. At the same time, some steps must be taken to found a customs' union, invigorate the Arab League (AL) and upgrade the mechanisms regulating Arab work through sketching out new vote systems. A committee that monitors the implementation of the recommendations of Arab summits is not less important however. The program also seeks to foster the role AL plays in social and cultural fields.
Fifth, boosting relations between Egypt's economy and big power economies
This includes accelerating the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US, negotiating the quotas of Egyptian products in European markets and broadening the Qualified Industrial Zones (Qiz) agreement to include more industrial cities in the years to come.
Sixth, fostering Egypt's role in Africa
This can happen through the following:
1- Getting involved in peacekeeping in Africa.
2- Devising strategic dialogue mechanisms with African countries.
3- Broadening the COMESA free trade agreement to form a customs' union by the end of 2008.
4- Bolstering cooperation with Nile Basin countries.
5- Increasing military grants to Africans as well as university grants.
Egypt's security is strongly linked to neighbouring countries overcoming their problems. Egyptians have done a lot, in fact, to help Africans in this regard.
6- Helping middle class people realise their aspirations
The program details the following components in relation to education:
1- To reduce pressure on Egypt's 3.5 million working women the program seeks to enrol children between four to six years old in kindergartens. This will allow women to make career advancement. 2- The program seeks to encourage the establishment of private universities, which are instrumental in absorbing growing numbers of students completing tertiary education and reducing pressure on public universities. The program seeks to link education with the labour market. It rests assured that universities groom youngsters for the labour market. 3- The program prods universities to disseminate more information about distance learning to make the public informed of the services they offer.
A key pledge of President Mubarak's electoral platform relates to the middle class. It seeks to address the aspirations of Egypt's doctors, teachers, engineers and other professionals who are the locomotive of progress. The President's platform contains a vision for improving the life of the middle class.
The program for continuous learning aims to present new types of education for all classes by translating around 12,000 books. These books will be sold at a low cost. The program also seeks to encourage citizens to use Internet. The Program highlights the commitment to home ownership. It therefore would perk up mortgage laws, simplify home ownership registration procedures and offer finance for housing construction.
The Program encourages banks to offer loans to working families to increase the purchasing power of the middle class.