CAIRO – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has stressed the importance of the protecting the Egyptian state from sliding into destruction and chaos as happened in 2011.
Commenting on statements by Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and acting health minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar during launch of the National Project for Developing the Egyptian Family, the president expressed the state’s keenness on human rights which he said is given priority, calling on citizens to be aware of the volume of challenges the country is facing.
The president said these challenges increase the state’s insistence on serious work for the sake of Egypt.
Sisi said the population increase undermines the state’s ability to achieve growth.
The president added the Egyptians who took to the streets in 2011 felt societal dissatisfaction while some saw the state as an enemy and were not aware of the real causes of the negative conditions at the time.
The president called for linking the labour market to education asking “Is the goal of education to educate our sons only or link them to labour markets?
He said the future of new generations is our responsibility, pointing out the state is working on changing the cause of deterioration and building a better future for the students.
He said some 700,000 students graduate annually but the labour markets are not able to accommodate all of them.
He also said the state should increase the number of hospitals to improve health services offered to citizens.
He said the salaries of Egyptians are low but he is not responsible for that, pointing out that he wished to give every Egyptian LE30,000 monthly.
The president promised to improve the health conditions of citizens.
President Sisi said the acting minister of health affirmed today that 1,62,000 patients received medical treatment during the past three years, adding LE106 billion are spent now on medical treatment, however, they are still not enough.
The president said that during his recent visit to Belgium he talked with Belgian officials about the human rights issue and the challenges the Egyptian state is facing.
He said he asked the Belgian officials on the volume of the GDP in their country and they said it reaches 500 billion dollars annually, then he asked them about the population they said it stands at 10 million
President Sisi added he told the Belgian officials that the GDP in Egypt should reach 5 trillion dollars as its population reaches 100 million people
As Egypt has no funds enough, the Egyptians do not receive appropriate food, education or medical treatment, he said, noting that this is a challenge that the state has to overcome to ensure that fundamental human rights are fully realised.
The president said he encourages people to express their opinions freely on condition that they speak and act to serve the interest of the homeland.
He said he wishes to establish schools and universities at the highest level to be able to provide quality education and health services.
President Sisi said the state’s potentials do not match the growth rates, pointing out he is not talking about the state budget deficit but he is talking about inability of performance, which led to this situation.
The president said he wants to achieve a high level of progress because the number of graduates amounts annually to 700,000, so he told Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat that the state seeks providing job opportunities based on advanced systems because their costs are not high.
The president said the size of challenges have not sapped his determination on and persistence in working for Egypt’s future.
The president asked Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli about a graduates’ training program which seeks to employ about 1 million youth, then Madbouli explained that it aims at training computer programmers to work everywhere even from their homes, noting that the training costs 30,000 dollars for every programmer.
The president directed the minister of communications and information technology to announce an AD to enable the graduates to apply for the program.
President Sisi called on citizens to support the state efforts to build a new generation of real educated graduates able to cater for the needs of the job market.
The president called on newly-married girls to delay their pregnancy for one or two years in order to live up to the responsibility of being married and starting a new family and be better prepared for motherhood.
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