Egypt and the Arab Spring Revolution

Streaming video requires Flash Player, RealPlayer, or Windows Media Player to view.The Arab people revolted against unjust economic models that have left the vast majority of society destitute and marginalized in their own countries. For decades, inappropriate policies were prescribed and imposed by the very same international actors that are called upon today to facilitate the transition. The main questions to be addressed are:What are the main factors causing revolutions in the Arab world? What packages are on offer from G8, EU, IMF, World Bank and EBRD? How are these packages structured and targeted? What sectors will benefit? And what are the constraints? How much of a problem is inequality? Will concerns about social justice seriously be addressed? Why did Egypt new government initially turn down IMF and World Bank offers of policy support packages? The Arab Spring Revolution is facing three main challenges: Restoring Security: The lack of security is the first complaint of the Egyptians at present; they don't feel safe in the streets, at home, at work, etc. Lack of security has been also reflected in traffic chaos, which forms another source for public complaints. There are several factors which have lead to this result and which need to be tackled strictly. Although the security is relatively better at present as compared to eight months ago, when the youth revolution started, there are still much to be done to achieve an overall security in the country. Having a Comprehensive Economic View: The government lacks an economic view that targets raising growth and creating employment opportunities. The problem with the government is that each minister is dealing on his own with the problems and challenges in his ministry, which are many, without having an economic view for all the ministries to revolve the production wheel again, with all what this implies of raising production and creating employment. To achieve that, the government needs to have a think tank (as a high profile institute, or a group of well chosen experts), that puts alternative scenarios for an overall economic plan in which all the ministries have an assigned role to play, and also identifying the policies which enhance the private sector's role in investment and production within the market economy system adopted in Egypt. Establishing Democracy: The question is how to achieve democracy, with all what it involves of having multiple competitive political parties and a respectable election rules for choosing the president with limited powers by law. Changing the previous system which has been prevailing for almost 60 years (after the 1952 revolution), and which consists of one dominant party that formulates consistently the government is not an easy task. Even when Sadat, followed by Mubarak, allowed the existence of more than one political party, there continued to be one dominant party headed by the president and has always formed the government. One important factor for achieving democracy is that all those parties are competitive in power and have equal chance to formulate the government.Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesOhio State University. Department of EconomicsOhio State University. Middle East Studies CenterOhio State University. The Women's PlaceOhio State University. Department of HistoryOhio State University. Department of Near Eastern Languages and CulturesOhio State University. Moritz College of LawOhio State University. Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality StudiesEvent Web page, streaming videos, event photo

Labour Information System (Egypt) Phase I : impact assessment report

Final versio

Egypt\u27s Economic Reform and the Challenges of Globalization

[abstract not provided]https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/2272/thumbnail.jp

Domestic Public Debt in Egypt: Magnitude, Structure, and Consequences

[abstract not provided]https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/2264/thumbnail.jp

The Open Door Economic Policy in Egypt: A Search for Meaning, Interpretation and Implication

Political Economy may be seen as an attempt to cultivate a new intellectual and practical direction in examining the issues and prob­lems of the Middle East. The authors of this volume are concerned as to how the social -relations of historically specific structures in the Middle fast originate, operate and change. It is otvious that before facts are gatheed a theoretical and epistemological stance must be taken so as to assemble and analyze those particular facts relevant to speciftc issues and problems. The first two articles of this volume whi-ch are presented by Enid Hill and H.M. Thompson are concerned precisely with this point. The third essay is historical and is bas·ed on the premise that an understanding of the present includes a comprehension of the process of economic and political transfonnation. As Abdel Aziz Ezz el Arab argues, the legacy of the -Mam1uks remains with the Egyptian people even today as they struggle for the development of their nation. The last two articles by Gouda Abdel Khalek and Heba Ahmed Han­doussa develop a poignant critical analysis of two issues \u27that are of tremendous significance to Egypt as the country moves into the decade of the 1980\u27s, i.e., the Open Door Economic Policy and Egypt\u27s public sector. The structural transformation of Egypt during the next ten years or so will depend-partially on how and in whose interests these issues are resolved

Country Study 9

Since joining the International Monetary Fund in 1945 as an original founding member, Egypt has signed four stabilization agreements with the Fund. These agreements were: a credit facility in May, 1962, which collapsed fairly rapidly; a stand-by arrangement in April 1977; an extended fund facility in July 1978; and the new stabilization package agreed in May, 1987, which is supported by a stand-by credit of SDR 250 million. Some of the most important items in the new programme are the following:A gradual devaluation-cum-unification of the exchange-rate structure, with the establishment of an official free market in foreign exchange; an increase in energy prices; an increase in purchase prices of agricultural commodities; action to reduce the budget deficit to 13 per cent of GDP; an increase in interest rates; and (undisclosed) limits on monetary expansion.This package must be viewed against a dismal background of a stagnant economy, rapidly-rising inflation (estimated unofficially at 30 per cent in mid-1987) and a budget deficit which the author of the following paper, Dr Abdel-Khalek, reports to have been 27 per cent of GDP in 1985-86 - and possibly even higher in 1986-87.The real purpose of this programme, which the IMF was persuaded to moderate considerably from its original demands, was to clear the way for a Paris Club rescheduling. Subsequently, about one-quarter of Egypt's medium and long-term debt of about USD40 billion has been rescheduled over ten years, including a five-year grace period.In the author's judgment, the new package may turn out to be self-defeating, and could well founder through failure to control the budget deficit. This failure would leave behind a legacy of a greatly depreciated currency and excessive interest rates. The author concludes that Egypt 'may soon find itself facing a crisis situation even more difficult than the one which led to the present package'