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Al-Ahram Weekly 14 - 20 September 2000 Issue No. 499 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 14 - 20 September 2000 Issue No. 499
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region Interview International Economy Opinion Culture Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Youssef Ghali: young and controversial
Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade Youssef Boutros Ghali, 49, is the youngest cabinet minister and the most controversial. For the past year, he has been subjected to fierce criticism from opposition parties and also the national press. They charge that he is surrounded by a lobby of businessmen who play a key role in shaping his ministry's policies. There is, however, a general consensus that he has a clear-cut strategy and proven experience in formulating economic reform programmes.
Ghali is a newcomer to politics although his family is one of the few Coptic families that have played a role in shaping national policies for nearly a century. His grandfather, Boutros Ghali, was a prime minister who was assassinated in 1909 and his uncle, Boutros Boutros Ghali, is a former minister of state for foreign affairs and former UN secretary-general. His father is Raouf Ghali, a tourism entrepreneur and a member of the consultative Shura Council.
Until the early 1990's, Ghali, a 1980 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was a professor of macroeconomics at the American University in Cairo (AUC). In 1991, he was appointed as consultant to then Prime Minister Atef Sedki in the area of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 1993, he joined the NDP's ranks and was appointed as Minister of International Cooperation. When Atef Ebeid was made prime minister in October 1999, Ghali was given the economy portfolio, becoming a central figure in the cabinet. Last February, he was promoted to the NDP's secretariat-general. He is one of five Copts fielded by the NDP in the elections.
