Brothers and Sisters ,
Egypt's loyal workers ,
Today, same as ever before, we meet on this memorable
day in the history of labour movement everywhere to revive
a lofty value deep-rooted in the ethos of all Egyptians over ages. On this
day, we express our renewed pride and trust in Egypt's workers, the
makers of progress and the guardians of national march. Under all
circumstances, workers have proved that their sense of duty and national
allegiance transcend all other considerations and obligations and lead all
priorities.
Since the dawn of history, Egypt's workers have realized that their
own interests are totally associated with those national interests and that
their goals are entirely identical with those of the whole people.
Thus, their own interests could be protected only by persistently
maintaining national interests as top priorities and viewing their goals
and demands through a comprehensive vision of the interest of their
time-honoured homeland and their glorious people.
Under all circumstances, Egypt's workers have always made
pioneering strides ahead in the way of gaining awareness of national
goals and sense of responsibility. For the sake of the homeland, they
willingly gave unlimited contributions so as to render Egypt forever
strong, invulnerable to invadors and coveteous aggressors and able to
face the severest challenges.
This magnificent national attitude springs from their full awareness
that the land of Egypt that God exclusively mentioned in the Holy Quran
has to be ahead of the ranks in making civilization and promoting man's
message in this world and his belief in the eternal afterlife.
Out of this awareness deep-rooted in the conscience of Egypt's
workers, they lavishly give out for the sake of the pride of their
homeland and the glory of the people. Over ages, they have always been
the great builders who erected the pyramids and cities all over Egypt.
With their youthful endeavours and firm determination, they built the
High Dam, turning dreams into stark,, unmistakable realities.
Thus, motivated by their true awareness and national sense of duty,
Egypt's workers stood side by side with their valiant Armed Forces in
undertaking their mission of deterring aggression, dangers and threats
and sacrificing their lives for the sake of the homeland and dignity of the
people.
Prompted by their true sense of responsibility and right understanding
of national goals, the Egyptian labour movement successfully managed
to provide good examples and paragons of proper trade-union practice,
free of partisanship or fanaticism.
Out of their insistence on full fusion and identification with national
interests and goals, the Egyptian working masses sought to maintain the
cohesion of the homefront, discarding fanaticism and extremism and
holding on to the bonds of national unity.
Of all categories of our people, the working masses were among the
vanguards who realized the objectives and targets of economic reform.
They were also immediately aware that reform was the only possible
means to achieve a real, radical progress whose fruits the working class
will be the first to reap. That is why the working masses have never
hesitated to support the economic reform process since the very
beginning. They, thus, proved to possess an elevated consciousness and
great ability to anticipate the present for a better future.
Hence has been my determination to pay back workers the same level
of loyalty and contributions and make them the first to benefit from the
economic reform and the major revival, where during strides have been
lately started. We hope this will lead to a rise at balanced rates in the
standards of living and per capita income for all Egyptian citizens as well
as a tangible shift in the quality of life for all Egyptians in cities, villages
and hamlets. As we are all in the same boat, no one can deny the role of
working masses in realizing the progress and securing the future of our
homeland.
Brothers and Sisters ,
I would like to reiterate that we are committed to guarantee that all
categories of people especially the low-income brackets will have access
to development returns. Moreover, we are committed to keep into
consideration the social dimension in every single step we take or
decision we make. In all our policies and programmes, we will take into
account in the first place workers' interests. We firmly believe that social
justice is the underpinning of legitimacy of government and that the cost
of living should be equally and equitably shared by the different
segments of society.
As profit-making is not the sole target of human activity, the more
able segments of society should incur the greater share and should fulfill
their obligations to the state and community in good faith and recognition
of their social accountability.
Therefore, it was one of the most important pillars of the state policies
of privatization and expanding ownership base to show due regard to
workers' interests and rights. Development can not be balanced and
sustainable unless the social dimension, side by side with the economic,
are taken into consideration. This philosophy, governing our approach to
comprehensive development will never be abandoned under any
circumstances.
Based on the foregoing, we have sought, since our first day in office,
to give high priority to low-income brackets, in all development plans for
providing basic services such as education, health, housing and utilities
or subsidies for essential commodities.
On the past 18 years, appropriations for these fields reached more
than LE 389 billion. In the budget of the fiscal year 99/2000 alone, they
hit a record-breaking figure of more than LE 50 billion.
Suffice to mention that investments used in providing potable water
and sanitary drainage projects mounted from LE 1.3 billion in 1981/1982
to LE 43 billion in this year's budget. This is due to expansions of
projects allocated to poor districts, villages, hamlets and areas that have
so far received only a negligible share of development returns such as
Upper Egypt governorates.
I need not talk about the sustained increase at growing rates in the
appropriations for education, health and social insurance services which
are basically availed by workers and their families. In line with the
modern concepts, a new social insurance bill, introducing two new
elements, has been drafted:
First: The family, rather than the individual, is the major concern of
the provisions of the proposed draft law.
Second: Assistance to families to help them to meet cost of living is
not restricted to financial aid. A new dimension is added to the insurance
process, whereby family members, including men and women are
prepared, wherever possible, to engage in production through training
and acquisition of skills especially those required for trades in significant
demand in the new labour market.
Dear Brothers and Sisters ,
Since we started the economic reform process in the early 80s, we
were fully aware that it would not proceed all the way through without
problems or obstacles. Per se, reform is a complicated and onerous
process which is often exacting and burdensome.
No specific society, regardless of its level of strength and progress,
can pass through such process without suffering frequent problems. But
we were confident of the ability of our time-honoured people to surmount
those problems and obstacles. This could be possible as long as they
were capable of envisaging the aspired goal, confident of their ability of
withstanding challenges for sometime for the sake of the reform that will
have a sustained impact on the nation's progress and the people's
welfare at present and in future.
Hence, the success of any economic reform in any specific society is
measured not by the absence of problems or pitfalls but rather by its
viability and ability to hit target and overcome problems without
undergoing grinding crises or social unrests. While these phenomena
might occur on the local scene, the world reform itself is not immune
from them. In all cases, however, what matters is that the set system
should be able to face up all these problems without heavy cost or
devastating consequences.
The first measure of successful reform in any society still remains the
national economy's ability to achieve higher rate of growth, generate new
job opportunities that meet the society's needs, promote the state's
ability to export, compete in the foreign markets and to lure foreign and
local investments and savings to set up large and small production
projects alike.
No body can deny that the Egyptian economy has over the past
months slightly suffered from specific problems that are not hard to
address. Nor do they jeopardize our ability to pursue the course of great
revival, because being fully aware of these problems right from their
early stages, we have been well-prepared to face them up in a rational
and productive way.
Brothers and Sisters ,
With the beginning of this new century, Egypt enters into a new phase
of economic reform basically geared to complete and enhance the role of
institutions in the society. These institutions whether governmental or
non-governmental, political, social or economic have become the
mainstay of progress and parameter of advancement in today's world.
They are the main guarantee to the society's ability to deepen the
desired reform and maintain progress already achieved. Moreover,
strong and effective institutions are considered one of the most
important guarantees of the transparency and stability of policies. They
are also the commanding factor for setting the pace of growth and
progress in any society. Now that we live in a new world governed by
extremely intricate and difficult relationships and conditions, economic
institutions in particular represent the basic guarantee in the face of
challenges and problems that may obstruct progress and reform.
In order for us to face up this changeable world, all of us, the
government, non-governmental and private sector institutions alike,
should candidly agree that to build strong institutions in today's world is
largely contingent on how far such institutions will be able to acquire and
use modern technology in raising productivity and quality levels. As a
matter of fact, we are embarking on the stage of institution building and
enhancement not out of vacuum.
In so doing, we rather rest on certain experiments already conducted
and other models that have proved successful in enhancing ability to
form information and appropriate decision-making. The benefits gained
from these models could be more widely circulated for expanded use.
Therefore, I have asked the government to seek, steadily and
gradually to disseminate the information technology culture and spread
its applications in an increasing number of important departments and
authorities operating in the fields of taxes, customs, foreign trade and
financial and banking services. It is an aspired goal to expand this
system in the near future to cover all state and private organizations.
This will make us re-assured of the viability and competitiveness of the
community with all its sectors.
It goes without saying that any talk about institutions and application
of advanced technology will be meaningless, unless coupled with a clear
vision of human development. The human factor is the commanding and
decisive criterion in reinforcing and bolstering institutions. In the final
analysis, institutions are entities that are managed and activated by
trained and skilled manpower with a marked ability to understand
principal national goals at every phase in their proper order of priorities,
together with an awareness of advancements and innovations occuring in
various spheres in the world.
For all these considerations, some of my most important assignments
to the new cabinet was to prepare qualified and trained cadres in various
sectors to assume responsibility in the near future. I also instructed the
government to seek to activate the role of educational and training
institutions, utilizing international experiments and expertise in this
respect. I find it opportune at this point to call upon the
non-governmental sector to contribute to the achievement of this goal,
based on its recognition of the importance of training and formation in
raising productivity, improving quality of services and commodities and
realizing a tangible increase in exports to various markets.
Undoubtedly, the working masses are one of those institutional groups
that, side by side with the state and private sector organizations, can play
a significant role in this endeavour. All these public and private
institutions required trained and skilled staff who can improve quality
and competitiveness of production at higher rates.
Hence, the only way to achieve this goal is to provide training on
proper scientific grounds to all workers, regardless of their positions on
the employment scale. Training through limited courses is no longer
sufficient, while periodical and regular training is now a requirement for
success and survival in today's world. In highly advanced societies, it is
required for practising any profession or trade to pass regular and
periodical training courses. This is justified by the fact that, as
manufacturing processes and techniques are changing continually, even
in a matter of limited months, production should keep up with this
accelerating pace.
Motivated by such a vision, we have conducted intensive international
contacts over the past few months so as to create a favourable
atmosphere to achieve this major goal, with a view to reaching
appropriate means of cooperation with these foreign entities. As a matter
of fact, all parties contacted showed wide response. Thus, it is now our
turn to seize this favourable opportunity to bring about without delay this
transformation in Egypt according to the best standards. As you may
recall that within the framework of the first Regional COMESA
Conference held in Cairo, resolutions were passed so as to promote
cooperation and interaction among African countries concerned in these
and other fields.
Moreover, Egypt host the first Africa-Europe Summit that was
concerned with examining aspects of due cooperation between the
countries of both continents. Concomitantly, the summit helped promote
the capability of the African countries to negotiate with regional blocs
and major powers on formulas to guarantee wider means of protection
for their workers, producers and institutions. Moreover, we intend to
host the G15 Summit, next June so as to achieve creative cooperation
between South and North countries. All these efforts aim at achieving
the same goals previously mentioned.
Once again, I would like to point out that Egypt's workers shoulder a
large share of responsibility in making our march a success. The duty of
developing science and knowledge is no longer restricted to scientists
and researchers, but rather extends to skilled workers, who can gain
added experience everyday, absorb and efficiently use the latest in
science and technologies of our time. The benefit of such transformation
should not be availed only by major projects but also, on equal grounds,
by small-size and microenterprises that receive great attention on our
part.
No doubt, prompt efforts have been exerted over recent years in the
field of workers training and formation. Yet these efforts are short of
facing present and future challenges. Training and formation actually
demand many new elements that respond to the latest mechanisms and
future horizons. Therefore, you may deem it convenient to consider
together an appropriate mechanism to achieve this goal, i.e; to prepare
and train workers in such a way as to meet the needs of the present and
future generations.
Learning from the experience of societies that have outpaced us in
this field over the past decades, we should seek to maintain certain
qualities in the training and formation process salient of which are the
seriousness, discipline and assuring the highest standards. Training
should also provide for continuing acquisition of skills throughout all
successive age and job levels. In our time, no one, regardless of his level
of experience and eligibility, can claim to be no longer in need of any
further knowledge or experience.
The Egyptian Trade Union Federation can play a significant role in
re-enforcing, enhancing and continually improving the concept of human
development and training, taking into account its record of accumulated
practical experience and comprehensive vision. ETUF is undoubtedly
aware that the interest of workers in Egypt's labour both on the short
and long term depends on continually developing their skills and
qualifying them to compete with their foreign counterpart given that
Egyptian workers are competent to face challenges as well as creative
and contributive in all fields.
No one should doubt the ability of our workers to achieve this goal.
They have already gone through this experience over the past years,
albeit on a limited scale. This was represented in the dual education
formula earlier agreed with ex-chancellor of Germany, Helmut Kohl.
This system, where the German government still cooperates successfully
with us, is based, as you know, on a combination of both theoretical and
on-the-job training as well as concerted efforts by concerned government
bodies, chambers of commerce and industry, workers and businessmen.
It is to be noted that many private sector corporations are offering to
fund such training programmes after realizing the considerable benefits
to be gained from improving workers' efficiency and skills as well as the
quality of products.
Egypt's loyal workers ,
We look forward to the future with hope and confidence to forge our
way with the help of science and exertion, involving the support of God in
every step we take or decision we make. In so doing, we seek only the
blessing of God and satisfaction of our people, abiding only by the
supreme national interests.
We have promised our people to ceaselessly pursue reform in all
fields. We accept no doldrums, nor are we satisfied with the progress
made at a certain stage, as we are aware that history constantly moves
forward through time and place. Moreover, we always aspire for
progress and advancement striving hard for the best and most beneficial
of every thing in all fields.
Our ability to achieve the goal is enhanced by our intention to create a
favourable climate to enable workers to practice their public rights and
national duties, participate in charting the course of national movement
at various stages including the enacting of important legislations. An
example is the recently passed law requiring judiciary supervision to
cover the entire election process, down to the level of local balloting
sub-committees all over the country, amounting to 42,000 councils.
Earlier, such supervision was restricted to general committees that did
not exceed 220 in number.
Hence, was our orientation to keep unchanged the provision of Article
196 of the Constitution, requiring that at least 50 percent of members of
People's Assembly and Shura Council should be workers and peasants.
As this role should not be tampered with or circumvented, we have
welcomed the dominating trend in the recent deliberations of the
People's Assembly, culminating in keeping unchanged and unaltered the
established definition of worker and peasant. This will ensure stable
legal conditions, protect public rights and guarantee proper
representation of the masses of workers and peasants in elected
councils.Accordingly, we expect increased active participation by
workers in the election process, either through nomination, casting
ballots on the election's day or rationalized election campaigns. Workers
can further help in protecting elections against negative practices
committed from time to time such as tribalism, acts of violence, seditions,
buying out votes or influencing electors.
These are harmful practices that do not conform with the sublime
principle of parliamentary representation nor do they help achieve the
aim of the election process. In our present stage, we are in dire need to
entrench the right principles of public work and enlighten all citizens to
perform their national duty and cast their votes in elections. This wide
mass participation is the essence of democracy and the real guarantee of
sound election process.
On its part, the state will take all possible measures to guarantee the
integrity of elections and protect them against any acts or attempts to
impair the process, obstruct citizen's freedom to vote in favour of the
candidate of his choice, away from any pressure or rigging.
As we are approaching, within six months, new elections of the
People's Assembly, I find it opportune to repeatedly urge all citizens,
regardless of their parties affiliations and visions to cast their votes and
select such candidate that they deem worthy of their trust, not only on
the strength of his own personal traits and merits but also against the
values, orientations they represent and the platforms they adopt. At this
important juncture of our national history, this is the only way for
democratic practice to be deeply entrenched,and the course of national
action rationalized.
In this connection, the greater responsibility still rests basically on
political parties and their candidates to elections. Therefore, they are all
required to address their electoral platforms to the grassroots in an
atmosphere of freedom and democracy, seeking to enlist wide popular
participation in the election process.
They should be fully convinced that, since the role of the people is the
foremost and ultimate goal, they should have the final say in such
process. In this context, I have instructed the National Democratic Party
to ensure that its cadres of all levels should seriously and actively move
through the masses of electors in all parts of the country to explain and
interpret the party's electoral platform, in a bid to enrich political and
partisan life in Egypt. I hope that all parties should realize their
responsibility in this respect and properly shoulder it in theory and
practice in such a way as to cope with the public national interest.
I am concerned to let everybody know that no reform or development
can be made on the land of Egypt at the expense of the working class,
but rather for its benefit and interest. Since they bear the greater share
of responsibility, they should be the most favoured with protection and
care and being the real beneficary of all reform exercises, they should
both be the means and the end.
It remains for us all; government and opposition alike, to be convinced
that the safest means to sustainable progress and growth is to seek
always to develop an overall national consensus on issues beyond
dispute, division or partisan differences, together with respect for proper
democratic approach, based on essence rather than form. The essence of
democracy lies in the acceptance of multiple opinions and plural points of
view, readiness to accept other opinion and submission to the opinion of
the majority, given that the whole nation can never be unanimous on
wrongful or deviant ideas and the masses are blessed by God's help.
It is always our pledge never to be remiss with any right, nor to be lax
with any duty. We will never allow any one to encroach upon others'
rights or to enjoy priviledges inaccessible by others. As we all stand
equal, in public rights and duties, before the law, there are no exceptions,
prerogatives, favoritism, corruption nor violation of the law, for
deception spoils everything and aborts every reform programme.
As we are all faithful guardians to the country's progress on the road
of growth and reconstruction and each has his own role and position, it is
unacceptable for any one to only play the role of disinterested on-looker.
The future of the country depends on our collective endeavour and
concerted and consistent movement that differentiates between issues
where plurality is permissible and those where concensus of opinion and
unified orientation are required. We do exert the utmost possible effort
to create a favourable atmosphere for this course of action which, we
hope, will be successful with the help and blessings of God. We also
seek, with all determination and strength possible to contribute to the
building of just and comprehensive peace in the region on all tracks
without exception. It is through peace that we and all the peoples of the
region will be able to forge our way with accelerated pace towards reform
and progress. Thereby, we can make up for the blood shed and resources
wasted away over the past half century. It is now time to put an end to
this sorrowful decade and open up a new page of comprehensive
reconstruction and development.
It is our decisive option to keep working and striving hard, given that
work is the basis of value and man's noblest mission on this planet, as
Allah says in the Holy Qur'an "And Say (unto them): Act! Allah will
behold your actions, and (so will) His messenger and the believers" .
May Allah's Peace be upon you. |
