LOC15:28
12:28 GMT
CAIRO, April 2 (KUNA) -- President Abdulfattah Al-Sisi affirmed on Tuesday that he would safeguard national security and interests of Egypt amid tumultuous regional and international tensions.
Delivering a speech to parliament after taking the constitutional oath Al-Sisi said, "I took an oath upon myself to uphold Egypt's security and the well-being of its people, and achieve its development and progress as my paramount objective."
"Domestic menace of terrorism, sudden global crises, and fierce international and regional wars raging around us. Those imposed unprecedented challenges, unparalleled in their magnitude and severity throughout Egypt's modern history."
"We would not have been able to persevere through these challenges without the greatness of our people and their extraordinary efforts over the past years to rebuild our homeland and solidify its foundations, enabling us to surmount any hardships," he affirmed.
The Egyptian President stated, "I would like to outline the key features and objectives that will define our national action in the coming phase.. With regard to Egypt's foreign relations: The priority is to protect and preserve Egypt's national security in a turbulent regional and international milieu and to work toward forging balanced relations with all actors in a new world."
"On the political level: to complete and deepen the national dialogue in the coming phase and implement the recommendations agreed upon across the various political, economic and social levels among others, as part of efforts to strengthen the political and democratic engagement, notably by the youth."
He went on to say that Egypt must adopt strategies that maximize its'" economic capabilities and resources, and enhance the solidity and resilience of the Egyptian economy in the face of crises, while achieving strong, sustainable and balanced economic growth, strengthening the role of the private sector as a key partner in leading development, focusing on the sectors of agriculture, industry, communications and information technology, and tourism and increasing their contribution to the GDP gradually."
"This is, in addition to expanding the area of agricultural land and productivity to achieve food security for Egypt, attracting more local and foreign investments to generate millions of sustainable jobs, while giving priority to local manufacturing programs to increase exports and Egypt's foreign exchange earnings," Al-Sisi said.
Adopting a comprehensive institutional reform aimed "at ensuring financial discipline and achieving sound governance by rationalizing public expenditure, enhancing public revenues, and moving towards more sustainable paths for public debt. This is in addition to transforming Egypt into a regional hub for transportation and transit trade, new and renewable energy, and green hydrogen and its derivatives and boosting the economic role of the Suez Canal."
He called for leveraging "Egypt's wealth of human resources by improving the quality of education for our children and continuing to activate programs and initiatives in order to improve citizen's public health and complete the stages of the comprehensive health insurance project."
The President stressed the importance of supporting social safety nets, increase the percentage of expenditure on social protection, increase allocations for the "Takaful and Karama" cash support program, as well as complete all stages of the "Decent Life" initiative, which is considered the largest development initiative in the history of Egypt, to achieve a substantial improvement in the standard of living of citizens in the targeted villages."
He called for the implementation of the strategic plan for urban development and complete the construction of new fourth generation cities, while developing major unplanned areas and completing the "Housing for All Egyptians" program, which primarily targets the youth and low-income families.
Earlier on, President Al-Sisi swore the constitutional oath for a six-year term. (end)
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