Articles

2019-11-08

The sustainable future we want

This article comes at the end of the Arab Sustainable Development Week hosted in Cairo under the title "An Integrated Partnership for Sustainable Future" in an attempt to consolidate all the Arab States’ efforts towards achieving sustainable development plans in these countries and to provide a framework for a high-level regional dialogue to discuss and present ways of implementing these plans while creating a supportive international and regional climate for the integration between development partners and the transformation to a better life. The Egyptian experience in sustainable development looks promising in this field.

Today, this became evident through steps made on the ground, where the Egyptian State works on stabilizing the State and enrooting stability day by day as well as rebuilding its national institutions. This is coupled with the quest to achieve a major economic renaissance through implementing an economic reform and a comprehensive, planned and deliberate development process.

Steps were initiated since 2014 through implementing major national projects, the top of which is the expansion of the navigational waterway of Suez Canal by the establishment of a new parallel channel, maximizing the use of the Canal and its current branches to increase Egypt's national income from hard currency and reduce transit time, thereby increasing the demand for the Canal as a global navigational waterway; thus increasing its rating and keeping pace with the projected growth of the world's trade volume in the future.

The new canal, as well as the accompanying network of roads, facilities and tunnels, is considered an important step to guarantee the success of the Suez Canal Area Development Project and thus the development of the Sinai Peninsula as a whole. Egypt, through this development project, contributes to the "Belt and Road Initiative" or the "Silk Road", an initiative announced by the Chinese President in 2013 to connect international trade routes by land and sea, which passes through 65 countries. Egypt's geographical location makes it a pivotal area for this initiative. Suez Canal is the main navigational waterway connecting East to the West and is a main hub for international trade routes, in order to transform Egypt into a global trading and logistic hub in the near future.

To keep pace with the development process, the State shifted towards establishing new roads network and expand the old ones to serve citizens and facilitate traffic and trade. Upon which, and during 6 years only, Egypt has become one of the least dangerous countries in terms of roads safety and quality, ranking 28th worldwide in 2019, as a result of the development projects carried for roads, bridges and tunnels as per the international standards.

In addition, major energy projects in the field of petroleum and natural gas and potentials made available thereto is transforming Egypt into a regional energy hub in the Middle East region. Moreover, the 47 desalination plants with a total capacity of more than 250 thousand cubic meters per day will help meet the water shortage expected in the coming period, one of which has been classified as the world's largest desalination plant (Ain Sokhna Desalination Plant) with a desalination capacity of 164,000 cubic meters per day, that will serve the investment zone and industrial zone, north-west of the Gulf of Suez.

The Egyptian State did not overlook the pillar for urban development, which is one of Egypt's Vision 2030 pillars, where the State has worked on building a range of new cities and urban agglomerations across the Republic, in order to expand and cope with the steady increase in population and relieve Al-Wadi and Delta strip from overpopulation. This is coupled with industrial and agricultural economic renaissance, namely, the establishment of some factories in many areas, and the National Agriculture Project targeting the cultivation of one and a half million feddans.

All these tangible successes achieved simultaneously in many directions are deemed a huge leap in quantitative and qualitative terms towards creating a suitable and secure environment for development and the process of sustainable development, which is now being achieved on Egyptian soil to attract national and foreign investments, thus contributing to the development process itself and shaping the future.

Parallelly, and in the same context, I believe that greater attention is to be paid to the human dimension, including population, education and health, because this the way through which the State may confront and solve many of the accumulated internal problems standing in the way of development and constituting material for those spreading rumors or inducing violence and corruption to disrupt Egypt's daily life, create crises and put obstacles before the Government to hinder its development efforts and addressing its problems.

All governmental and non-governmental efforts are consolidated towards the full implementation of Egypt's Vision 2030 pillars: Economic Development, Energy, Knowledge and Scientific Research, Transparency, Social Justice, Health, Education, Culture, Environment and Urban Development. To this end, the Egyptian State needs cadres and conscious leaders to support the Vision’s implementation and overcome obstacles and challenges, to be trained for the coming new phase and to grant a better future for coming generations.

In this context, the role of the Regional Center for Sustainable Development and Future Foresight Studies is evident in organizing seminars, conferences and workshops in line with Egypt's Vision 2030. The Center’s first conference at the beginning of next year entitled "Issues for the future and sustainable development in the Arab world" achieves the Egyptian vision for sustainable development, based on the concepts of the inclusive and sustainable growth and the balanced regional development, that grants the participation of all parties in the process of building and development and ensures that such development benefits all, thereby contributing to the revival of Egypt's historic role in regional leadership. It represents the road map aimed at maximizing access to competitive assets and advantages.

The Center will also conduct training sessions to raise awareness on sustainable development plans, methods of implementation and consolidating the visions of governmental entities and private sector companies, through the support of specialists from governmental authorities, including the Ministry of Planning and Administrative Reform and the National Planning Institute overseeing the signature of a memorandum of understanding with the Institute's Unit for Scientific Contractual Activities to provide a package of training programs helping the Center to achieve its objective. Additionally, Arab experiences are put into good use, where the Center has signed a partnership agreement with the Future Foresight Foundation in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, a company specialized in future studies, creativity and innovation, to assist in providing training courses and studies on Future Foresight, to exchange experiences and achieve cooperation, which also constitutes a valuable addition to the Center's cadres, in a manner that is in line with the Center’s vision and strategy towards achieving the sustainable future we want in Egypt, Arab and African States.