Egypt’s 4th National Youth conference kicked off 24, 25 July in the coastal city of Alexandria at Alexandrina Bibliotheca. The conference was attended by President Abd el Fattah el Sisi in the attendance of 1300 Egyptian youth, beside representatives of business associations, young secretaries of political parties, volunteers at NGOs, ministers, senior state officials, heads of political parties, heads of syndicates, university presidents, journalists, and representatives of councils. The event is based on facilitating discussions between the president and the young people of Egypt, and is organised in a way that allows the young voices to raise issues of their concern and their problems as they experience them.
The inaugural session witnessed playing of a documentary on recommendations of the previous youth conferences, another documentary reflecting on an idea to hold a world youth forum was also screened. It was then announced that a world youth forum would take place in the Egyptian Red Sea resort city of Sharm El Sheikh in November, and an official website of the world youth forum was also launched for youth from all over the globe to interact and communicate. A third documentary on youth in the West Delta region and problems they are facing was also played. The event aims to send a “message of peace”, according to a video presentation at the Alexandria event last Monday.
President Sisi’s speech at the conference started by asking the attendees to stand for a minute’s silence in honour of Egypt’s martyrs, El Sisi’s speech that followed explained that while implementing the economic reforms programme he had ahead of his eyes interests of Egypt rather than his own popularity, pointing out “we should live in a country that is properly developed”. Upon being asked about the country’s unemployed rate, Sisi explained that this is one of the tough challenges especially that the country’s public sector cannot accommodate more than 20 percent of its current workforce in its operations. During the inaugural session, Egypt’s president explained that he is seeking a different education, highlighting that we need to develop critical thought, positive suggestions, and a positive approach.
In press statements on the sidelines of her participation in the conference, Sahar Nasr minister of investment said that her ministry launched an initiative to establish incubators of youth enterprises. She explained that this project aims to help small investors and entrepreneurs, adding that the investment ministry is working with other development partners on increasing support for small investors. She further shed light on that the ministry of investment cooperated with UN Development Program (UNDP) and established Egypt’s National Impact Fund that will facilitate grants and market capital for businesses, especially startups as well as micro, small and medium sized enterprises. Moreover, she said that the Ministry of Investment also established Egypt Company for Entrepreneurship and Investment, with a capital of EGP 451 million. Nasr underlined the importance of the new Investment law; which includes investment incentives that create an investment climate that is favorable for the entrepreneurship sector.
The National Youth Conference is scheduled to kick off every three months as decided previously by the president during its launch in October 2016, when the first conference took place in Sharm El sheikh.
