Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi called on the Egyptian people to seize the opportunity to change in the upcoming elections, noting that the country has faced many challenges “that could have destroyed countries.”
On Monday, during his opening of the “Story of A Nation between Vision and Achievement” conference held in the New Administrative Capital, Al-Sisi emphasized that growth cannot be achieved by words alone, but by sacrifice, sincerity, and hardship.
The conference aims to review the achievements of Al-Sisi’s rule ahead of the presidential elections. The elections are scheduled to be held from 10 to 12 December, and the results are expected to be announced on 18 December. If a second round is needed, the final results will be announced no later than 16 January 2024.
Al-Sisi said that the Suez Canal’s revenue was expected to be about EGP 12bn in 2024-2025, but it is currently EGP 10bn, and it is expected to reach EGP 10.5bn by the end of 2023.
The president said that the state did not focus on the financial return from the new Suez Canal project, but on the “moral” return that would boost the confidence of the Egyptians. He said that the new Suez Canal was not meant to serve the economic path, but to restore the people’s self-belief.
Al-Sisi said that the challenges that the Egyptian state faced in the past period were enough to make it unable to rise again, adding: “The problem of the state over the past years was that it lost confidence in itself. People did not believe that we could build a road or a bridge, and they restrained themselves.”
He added: “You want to have a place on the map in a country where 95% of it is desert land,” pointing out that the Egyptian state has worked to bring about development while fighting terrorism, rumors and lies.
During the conference, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly presented the measures taken by the state over more than nine years in all sectors, saying that “the achievements of the nine years have not occurred for decades. In fact, it can be said without exaggeration that they have not occurred for centuries in this country.”
