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| Naguib Sawiris |
Egyptian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris is an
international economic figure and a notable character on Egypt’s economic and
political arenas. Watani’s Mariam Rifaat talked to Mr Sawiris about the
political party he founded, al-Misriyeen al-Ahrar (The Free Egyptians) and his
aspirations for Egypt’s political process, while Katrine Faragallah tapped into his views on business,
terrorism, and local and global politics.
You may love him or you may loathe him, but you can never
be impartial towards billionaire businessman Naguib Sawiris. Many Egyptians see
Mr Sawiris as a model businessman who rose to the pinnacle of success inside
and outside the country, and a staunch patriot who works to help place Egypt on
the path of democracy and secularism. Yet many others see him as a businessman
bent on using his financial clout to manipulate politics in Egypt, or as a
too-successful Copt who ought not be given the opportunity to have a say in
running the country or drawing its future. It is a rare Egyptian who holds no
strong views vis-à-vis Mr Sawiris ... for more information /en.wataninet.com
Towards the end of the 1980sthe world held its breath as communism, a political
force in Russia for 70 years, started to fall apart, to be replaced by a system
that favoured democracy and a free market economy. At almost the same time,
free market reforms were introduced to China, leading to what is today very
nearly the mightiest industrial and trade powerhouse in the world, but still
with much to be desired on the political front ... All through this the world watched, with many
pondering the question: which should have come first, political reform or
economic development? To this day there is no definite answer to the question.
That same question has imposed itself on the Egyptian
scene to the point that a recent conference in Cairo, dubbed a ‘national
dialogue,’ was dedicated to discussing just that. The dialogue was organised by
the Economic Research Forum (ERF), a regional network dedicated to promoting
high quality economic research to contribute to sustainable development in the
Arab world, Iran and Turkey as part of a series of national dialogue events
under the title “The Egypt of the Future” ... for more information in |en.wataninet.com 
"التنمية الاقتصادية أم الإصلاح السياسيى" معضلة يتحدث عنها المجتمع أفراداً
ومفكرين ومثقفين وسياسين واقتصاديين … فى الفترة الحالية ، خاصة فى ظل الظروف التى
مرت بها مصر على مدار السنوات الماضية ،إذ حدث نوع من التشبع السياسي نتيجة الجرعة
العالية منها بعد 25 يناير ، وفى المقابل العمل على النهوض بالاقتصاد المصرى ، وبعد
انتخاب رئيساً للبلاد متمثلاً فى الرئيس عبد الفتاح السيسى ، باتت لمصر أجندة اقتصادية
واضح المعالم خاصة بعد انعقاد المؤتمر الاقتصادى العالمى فى مارس الماضى وإنجاز مشروع
قناة السويس الجديدة بأقتدار كما شهد العالم بذلك لمصر ، والتخطيط لإنجار وتأسيس العديد
من المشروعات القومية فى كثير من المجالات … لكن مع الإستعداد لإجراء الإستحقاق الثالث
المتمثل فى الإنتخابات البرلمانية باتت مقولة " التنمية الاقتصادية أم الإصلاح
السياسيى” تترد من جديد .. لذلك عقد منتدى البحوث الاقتصادية حلقة نقاشية لمناقشة هذه
المعضلة ضمن سلسة الحوار القومى حول “مصر المستقبل "
