Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Tuesday evening at the Fourth National Conference for Youth in Alexandria that economic and social reform is the only way to preserve the country and undermine attempts to turn Egypt into a failed state.
El-Sisi said that the government’s economic reform programme has already had a positive impact, with the past three years witnessing a tripling in foreign reserves as well as a decrease in unemployment rates and a $7 billion surplus in the balance of payments.
He said that the recent economic measures adopted by the state were inevitable, and that protective measures have been put in place to ease the burden of the economic reform programme on citizens.
On the Monday session of the conference, President El-Sisi announced that Egypt’s foreign reserves are now close to $35 billion.
The reserves have been climbing since November 2016, when Egypt signed an agreement for a three-year $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Reserves have increased from $28.641 billion at the end of April to $31.125 billion at the end of May.
El-Sisi also hailed Egyptians’ endurance and acceptance of the burdens caused by the economic reforms, calling on intellectuals and the media to stress to the necessity of undertaking these reforms as well as highlighting attempts to tear apart the state.
El-Sisi also said that countries that sponsor terrorism will be recorded in the “black pages of human history.”
“Over the past four years, terrorism, supported by these countries, has targeted Egypt with ruthlessness and determination, and we have increased our determination to confront it with thought, construction and development,” El-Sisi affirmed.
“As long as we have blood in our veins, we are willing to confront the evil of terrorism without compromise or retreat.”
El-Sisi affirmed that Egyptians are willing to continue development efforts to build their country and achieve their will as expressed on 30 June 2013, when mass protests led to the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
