A special event hosted by the Canada Egypt Business Council in cooperation with The Egyptian National Party, FORUM and the Egyptian Lebanese Society Featuring Presidential Candidate Air Marshal Ahmed Shafik.

In the light of the first presidential elections in Egypt and the second round of elections, the Canada Egypt Business Council (CEBC) hosted a special event and panel discussion in collaboration with the Egyptian National Party, Egypt’s International Economic Forum and the Egyptian Lebanese Society, featuring guest speaker Dr. Ahmed Shafik and some of Egypt’s most prominent figures.

The event is one of a series of events to address the vital economic and political issues in a series pertaining Egypt post the revolution. Attendees were prominent CEBC members and guests including Mrs. Gihan El Sadat former first lady of Egypt, Mona Abd El Nasser daughter of former president Gamal Abd El Nasser, Dr. Effat El Sadat head of the Egyptian National Party, Dr. Abdullah Serour professor, Alexandria University, Dr. Mostafa El Fekki, thinker and politician, Dr. Hany Helal former minister of higher education and scientific research, in addition to several key Egyptian figures. Mr. Motaz Raslan CEBC chairman moderated the panel.

Shafik spoke of the priorities on his agenda among which were farmers’ rights and the enhancement of their social status, “there must be a decision to relief the farmers from all their debts”, Shafik said. Being an advocate for diplomacy, he calls for activating the Egyptian activities by diplomatic steps to regain Egypt’s status. Shafik promotes the adoption of a presidential delegations’ project for key issues such as the Nile Basin, “The Nile Basin should have a presidential delegation to ensure coordination”, he said. He also called for long-term projects to support Egypt’s development, “An example is Upper Egypt where there should be a long-term project to develop Upper Egypt and make it as developed as the Delta”, he said.

Mr. Raslan in his opening remarks hinted to the importance of the civil state, “We need to preserve our country throughout history and for future generations with the help of devoted citizen. We are with Egypt”, Raslan reiterated “and the choice that Egypt is a civil state respecting the nation and the constitution without prejudice or exclusion. Egypt will be a stronger country thanks to its devoted citizens, but we need to start working “, he reiterated.
“Egypt will continue to be civil. It will not fall. We have many problems and challenges but I am always optimistic and say that Egypt’s strength is in its people” said Dr. Nabil Hilmy former dean of the faculty of law.

Mrs. Gihan El Sadat said, “Firstly I am speaking as a woman from Egypt. I am not an official figure, and I speak as an Egyptian citizen…Egypt is passing through one of the most difficult eras. I hear people say we are going to boycott the elections because we do not like the candidates I want neither of them andtherefore I am not voting or I am going to cast blank. That is unacceptable. We are citizens and citizens have a duty”, she reiterated. “We have to be frank we only have two choices; if we had a luxury of a third choice we could have done that”. She added “In my opinion we all want a civil state with democracy and human rights’ based on institutions that believe in individuals, where opposition is part of its nature, where nobody has to be afraid to state their opinion frankly. We all learnt a lesson and we salute the revolution of Egypt”, she said.”Now, we all ought to be one hand and operate for Egypt’s favour. We ought not to disperse and even if we do we need not to offend one another but rather respect each other. We need to stand hand in hand as Egyptians who have values in duties in thisdifficult phase that we are going through”, she reiterated.

Opening the floor for discussions, questions focused on the priorities on top of Shafik’s agenda… “Every official has an insight and things that he views as a priority to be achieved, for the current situation my top priority will be to grant full citizenship to Sinai residents as fully Egyptian citizens being part of their own nation” he said.

“The second issue is putting into commitment the Nuba forgotten citizens who left their land due to the conctruction of the high dam and to have them return willingly to their homeland”. “If I were the Egyptian president, the following day to my being in office, I will tell Egyptians abroad that we are about to establish the biggest economic area between Port Said and Suez. The interest of Egypt should come first. I think it is time for Egypt to be in a position where all the countries will look upon us”, Shafiq reiterated. “Following this, I plan to create an industrial zone around the High Dam Lake (Lake Nasser) as this lake is one of the richestresources”, he said.

Shafik then concluded his speech by calling upon all Egyptians “to put all their hands on deck”, comparing the current situation of Egypt to a ship that is undergoing a strong storm and needs all hands on deck to save it from sinking.