To give a big picture of how the revolt has been making an impact, she broke it down to the following socio-economic-political needs the country is grappling with:
- Security
- Economic vision
- Establish democracy
Factors for lack of security: mistrust of police, and their lack of control/authority; police stations were attacked by public; police don't intervene in crime.
Economic challenge centers on unemployment. Security and economics are interrelated. Economic situation creates "criminals" people transgressing the law in order to survive, in order to feed their family. Need to unify economic vision, propose scenarios for economic development, policy to cover financial and monetary needs, to support the financial sector. Businesses needs loans, foreign investors need to feel safe to work in Egypt. In the past investors could be sued for paying lower price. Meetings between ministers and businesses, they need money, labor.
To form a sustainable democracy the needs above must be fulfilled, in addition to the following: the people need to be raised with democracy, they need to have political literacy. The country also needs strong parties and ability to transfer power.
Some of Minister Gouda's related comments:
Don't look at the Egyptian case in isolation. Pivotal country through out history. If revolution succeeds Saudi Arabia will feel it, which why they asked for Mubarak's release.
Egypt is being transformed from a state of subjects to a state of citizens. There are 85 million Egyptians who need to undergo this transformation. So far the change has been peaceful, industry still intact, agriculture still intact, tourism intact though below capacity. In comparison with other revolutions, they are doing well. For example, there has been no absolute decline in GDP in Egypt so far. The GDP fell 30% during first year after revolutiin in Poland.
