29 March - 4 April 2001
Issue No.527
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 29 March - 4 April 2001 Issue No.527 |
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Two way street
Ibrahim Nafie outlines the benefits that have accrued over two decades of US-Egyptian cooperation
There is an enormous gap between official positions towards Egyptian-US relations and the attitudes of the press. Washington refers endlessly to the "special" and "strategic" relationship that exists between the two countries and praises Egypt as a cornerstone of regional peace and stability. Yet US media commentators consistently castigate Egypt as an obstacle to peace, coming close to stigmatising it as a "rogue" state.
In Egypt, too, despite a quarter of a century during which Egyptian officials have extolled the advantages of our ties with the US in terms of the economy and national security, the Egyptian press remains sceptical about the value of this relationship. Not only does the media frequently accuse the US of seeking to meddle in Egypt's domestic affairs, US aid is more often than not portrayed as ineffective, a source of corruption and a means by which Washington can constantly twist Cairo's arm.
To a large extent these misperceptions of Egyptian-US relations represent a failure to understand that the unique relationship between the two states is not a one-way street. On the contrary, it has realised enormous gains for both parties.
There can be no question, for example, that the US was instrumental in engineering the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement that led to Israel's complete withdrawal from Sinai. True, the October 1973 war marked the beginning of the liberation of occupied Egyptian territory, but through US mediating efforts we were able to transform this military victory into a political one, paving the way for the boom in agriculture, tourism and industry that we see in Sinai today.
Nor can there be any doubting the value the US places on the strategic aspect of its relationship with Egypt. The US has furnished more than $27 billion in military aid towards equipping and training the Egyptian armed forces, which, in conjunction with joint manoeuvres and other programmes, have lifted our deterrent capacities to unprecedented levels. That the US has persisted in its military assistance programmes to Egypt in the face of vehement Israeli objections confirms American faith in Egypt's pivotal role in safeguarding stability in the Middle East.
I also believe that many in Egypt have failed to appreciate the economic benefits US-Egyptian relations have brought to Egypt over the past two decades. Emerging economically crippled from the 1973 war, Egypt soon became the second largest recipient of US economic aid which injected billions of dollars into vital development programmes. And there can be no denying the many tangible results these influxes of aid have produced.
US sponsored aid programmes in the field of trade and commerce have helped generate more than 167,000 jobs and furnished 580,000 facilitated loans (valued at $6 billion) to finance small business enterprises. In addition, these programmes have not only generated important commercial links between the Egyptian private sector and US exporters but have helped acquaint Egyptian exporters with the needs of US and international markets and assisted them in enhancing the international competitivity of Egyptian exports.
Other US aid programmes have targeted education, allowing large numbers of elementary school teachers to receive additional training in the US, providing vital IT training programmes to some 500 candidates every year and enabling some 6,100 girls per year to obtain study grants to complete their primary education. US-Egyptian cooperation in this field has also resulted in the construction of 1,900 new schools in Egypt as well as the training of more than 19,000 Egyptian specialists in the fields of agriculture, engineering, medical services and administration at various in US academies.
US aid has been vital to a number of infrastructural development programmes. It has helped raise Egypt's electricity generating capacity by 5,000 kilowatts, making it possible to supply electricity to 97 per cent of the populace. The new turbines furnished through US aid for the High Dam have prolonged the life of the main electricity network in Aswan and improved its productive capacity by five per cent. In addition, some 75 per cent of Egypt's rural populace have benefited from the 16,000 rural infrastructural projects that have been implemented, among which are 1,473 newly constructed water networks serving 22 million people, 3,250 kilometers of roads to link remote villages and hamlets with rural administrative centres, 4,793 new classrooms creating places for 184,000 students, and 700,000 new telephone lines serving 8.2 million people, as well as more than 8,000 new international telephone lines.
Environmental protection has also benefited from many US aid programmes. In addition to the ambitious waste water projects in Cairo, Alexandria and other governorates there is a project to make 90 per cent of the gasoline consumed in Egypt lead free, another that has converted 25,000 cars from gasoline to butane and a third to filter industrial emissions in Helwan and the new industrial zones. US aid in this area has also targeted our natural reserves in the Red Sea through training programmes on the protection of mangrove swamps and coral reefs, as well as the preservation of our archaeological heritage.
US aid has been vital to improving standards of health care and medical training across the board. Suffice it to say here that infant mortality beneath the age of five has dropped by 60 per cent since 1975 in large measure due to family planning, infant inoculation and dietary programmes.
Finally, agricultural development was given a significant boost through various US aid sponsored research programmes that helped, for example, raise the productive capacity per acre by between 25 and 36 per cent for important staples, while simultaneously contributing to reducing the amount of water consumed in irrigation. In addition, a number of agricultural technology training programmes have enabled Egyptian farmers to diversify and improve the quality of their produce and process and package it to meet the specifications of international markets.
I have discussed the benefits of US-Egyptian cooperation in detail because it is rare that the dynamics of US-Egyptian relations are presented in such concrete terms. I believe such tangibles provide a useful objective anchor, especially when tempers flare over political differences between the two countries.
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