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Al-Ahram Weekly 7 - 13 October 1999 Issue No. 450 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 7 - 13 October 1999 Issue No. 450
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Interview Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Meaning business
By Gamal Essam El-DinFollowing an audience with President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday, Atef Ebeid, the newly appointed prime minister, said he hopes to announce the line-up of his new cabinet by Saturday. Ebeid replaced Kamal El-Ganzouri, who had served as prime minister since January 1996.
Ebeid vowed to act in line with President Mubarak's directives to speed up the implementation of mega development projects, commitment to social justice, opening the way to young people for participation in a comprehensive renaissance and improving the nation's economic performance.
Ebeid, a 67-year-old economist, was appointed minister of administrative development in 1984. In 1993 he became minister of state for the public business sector, administrative development and environmental affairs. When El-Ganzouri was appointed prime minister, Ebeid lost the portfolios of administrative development and environmental affairs.
Mustafa El-Said, a former economy minister, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Ebeid's appointment has more than one significance. "Ebeid, whom I know quite well, is a very dynamic person. Although he was an easy target of criticism in parliament in the last few years, he managed to forge close relations of mutual respect with most MPs, especially members of the economic affairs and industrial committees. He also has close connections with the business community. He strongly believes in liberalisation and a market economy and thinks that it is the private business sector that should be given the lion's share in the national economy and development plans. This is why I believe that Mubarak chose Ebeid because he knows that the man, through his close connections with the business community and parliament, has a better opportunity, in collaboration with a harmonious team, to achieve the long-term objectives of privatisation, export promotion and technological progress," El-Said said.
He added that "it is no secret that the privatisation programme suffered a setback recently. Ebeid was marginalised since the cabinet change of 1996. El-Ganzouri, in an attempt to centralise power, established a cabinet privatisation committee to take charge of the sell-offs. This slowed down privatisation. Now, with Ebeid as the new prime minister, I think that speeding up privatisation will be one of his top priorities. President Mubarak wants to see the privatisation programme move at a faster pace in order to attract greater foreign investments."
Abdallah Tayel, chairman of parliament's economic affairs committee, agreed that the appointment of Ebeid clearly shows that the president wants to see a stronger role for the private sector in national development, especially in boosting exports. "President Mubarak wants to convey a message to the international business community that Egypt will proceed vigorously along the path of economic liberalisation and integration into the global community and that its new prime minister will do his best to achieve these two goals."
Tayel explained that Ebeid "is well known to the international community because he led negotiations with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and acted to court foreign businessmen to invest in Egypt. For his part, as far as I know, Ebeid strongly believes in the role of multinational corporations in the global economy. I think that he will do his best to attract these corporations to invest in Egypt."
Describing Ebeid as "the architect of privatisation", Tayel said that in most of his speeches before the economic committee, Ebeid had expressed hope that Egypt would emulate China in attracting multi-national corporations. "He was involved several times in disputes with the leftists in the Assembly over the role of these corporations in the national economy. The leftists believe that resorting to these corporations usually ends up in losing economic independence, but Ebeid thinks that this is just outdated jargon. He believes that the attraction of multinational corporations is a matter of life and death because of their primary role in achieving the cherished technology transfer and raising growth rates," Tayel said.
Amin Mubarak, chairman of parliament's industrial committee, told the Weekly that Ebeid is more of a businessman than a technocrat. "The fact that he was asked eight years ago to be the de facto architect of privatisation gave him the opportunity to have close connections with the business community and to study the main infrastructural imbalances of the national economy. He has a panoramic view of this economy and an in-depth knowledge of its weak and strong points. He believes that liberalisation and integration into the global economy are the keys for taking Egypt into the next millennium," said Mubarak.
Ebeid is generally seen as a strictly economic figure, without political ambitions. "Ebeid, as far as I know, does not have political aspirations," said Ahmed Taha, an independent MP. "In contrast to El-Ganzouri, Ebeid is by no means a domineering character. He is similar to the former long-serving prime minister Atef Sedki who was keen on distancing himself from power conflicts."
El-Badri Farghali, a leftist MP who used to be critical of Ebeid, said that his most negative aspect is that in his implementation of liberalisation and privatisation policies, he used to ignore the social factor. (see p.2)
