 Well, good afternoon. I would like first to start by thanking Colin Campbell and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for for hosting us and also to thank CSIS Obviously Reggie, Adel Adawi and Caroline. This is this is an important meeting that times comes at a timely Manor and it's in a beautiful scenery. I'm very much Interested and obsessed with history Just to give you a bit of background myself besides the biography that you'll find in your booklets As you know, I come from an IT background And I finished my PhD almost 22 years ago, but just four months ago I got a degree in art history focusing on Islamic art and architecture. So I appreciate that very much and I'm grateful that my own university the American University in Cairo has the third largest Selection of books and manuscript manuscripts after Princeton and Oxford Having said that and why am I obsessed with history because of my own country? Long history cultural heritage heritage in itself in its historical background And I always look forward to see it in a better place For the people for for to preserve our history and to move forward having said that I'm standing here To fill the shoes of a friend who could not make it today But I have to share with you one thing by any stretch of imagination. I'm not an economist And I'll give you a very concrete example for that Some 30 years ago. I was getting into a Senior class. I was graduating senior actually senior year. I was getting into my my my class the first class an Economics course in the spring semester and the minute I stepped in the professor was saying assume one plus one equals two And I stopped there said hmm because that's what's about the only thing I can do without a calculator so I said I didn't even reach my my seat and I said What do you mean? He said just sit down? I didn't finish my sentence and then I said I can't that's that's a bad start And he goes just sit down and I was just about to feel that the third time he's going to tell me sit down or get out And he almost said that and I said, you know what if it's one plus one I'm assuming upon one plus one equals two. I think I'm in the wrong place Actually went out drop the course drop the major and change to business So I'm not a car an economist by any stretch, but I don't think we're here To discuss the economy We're here to discuss Egypt and the economy is just one side of the coin Economy and politics in the future. Maybe it's a three-side Are just integrated together We're talking over difficult time and I think throughout the last couple of days We came out with more questions than we came in with Sometimes it's better But sometimes even better when we come up with with some answers And I think we have to we have the answers, but we need to just talk to each other We need to stay positive and we need to look at the other side the other bright side of At the end of that tunnel obviously Egypt is a big country With accumulated issues, and I'd like to call them issues and challenges just to stay positive and not call them problems I think there are a number of venues that we can tap into an order to come out From that situation we're in and in a much better shape I have here some thoughts that I want to share with you I start with Capitalizing on the most important resource that Egypt has people and those people are young and passionate and determined to change Egypt and we've seen that two years ago I mean that are the ones who took the lead and in the events of January 2011 and some people call it the young population actually call it the baby population Because if you look at the statistics, you have 58 percent under the age of 25 But even more than that most of those are under the age of 18. We have a huge population That is almost 19 million between Schools and education. That's the future. That's one area that needs to be fixed today so that in five six years We start we start really benefiting from the dividends of Investing in education investing in in brains investing in human capital. I look at that as the oil of the 21st century for Egypt people So that's one one element the second element which is comes naturally With the history of Egypt with the location of Egypt Which is the tourism sector? I think we are blessed with so many different types of tourism that people can enjoy But we haven't been capitalizing on that not even before the uprising not before the events of 2011 Even in the best year as we've discussed. We've had 12 million Tourists I think we can do much better than that. We can do 20 you can do 25 we can do 30 But of course this needs way more than just a few temples and beaches and so on it needs an infrastructure It needs service culture. It needs Reaching out to the different markets around the world and inviting people to come to Egypt having said that that would only come To Egypt when it is safe when the security is actually in place I Think one of the things that we've all been very very proud of as as Egyptian is that I think up until Recent history. It was probably one of the safest cities as Cairo and countries as Egypt in the world we're going through a bit of a bump and That needs to be fixed You look at this these few different elements. I've just mentioned education tourism security I look at it as a more or less Maybe 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle and we need to start somewhere and I don't think time As of anything but essence and invaluable importance Some some people would like to think that Egypt is too big It can't it can't go down or that time will fix issues I don't think that's the way to go and there was a consensus among Those who are present in today's economic panel on challenges and outcome agree on that There is an overwhelming sense that things need to happen things need to happen now But we need also to come up with an agreement Starting up with the minimum minimal consensus on where to go and there's no doubt that there is a Strong willingness to go into that path but to do that It's not the government alone that can do that. It's the government. It's the private sector and it's the and It's the the civil society But again to do that that is there has to be the ecosystem that enables for that that empowers the youth that empowers the the civil society Sector in the community we go back again and remind ourselves Why did the events of 2011 started in the first place? It was because of one of the things that was not there at that time with the social justice Well, that's here sort of the catch-22 where to start We get into the issues of energy the issues of subsidy the issues of budget deficit and so on and so forth Freedom is not free. It always comes at an expense But the key thing is to try to Smoothly and gradually put a strategy that at some point We will have some sort of the aftershocks But at with time if people can see the the end game and if the whole Strategy is transparent. I think people will buy into it because I'm sure Egyptians are smart for some time that might have been For a long time that might have been sort of economically under the Some extreme pressure, but they're smart They understand that things don't come easy and I don't think it was even easy to get through the events of 2011 and post that period but that I think bringing back stability in the streets and bringing back the different sort of Ideas into the game is extremely is extremely important one other thing that that that was raised And I think is extremely important behind closed doors. We can come in and come up with all sorts of proper policies But the the the devils in the details when it comes to the implementation and that's again is extremely important Implementation would obviously when we tackle issues like subsidy. Well, we hit the element of social justice and things like that But again, that's what I said things should not be rough Rough things should not happen overnight and it will not happen overnight, but there is always Glimpse of hope and Positiveness when there's a clear path. There is a road map that is transparent. There is shared There is agreed upon not necessarily hundred percent, but that also factors in the different capacities In the community and there will never be one size that fits all and there will never be one Sort of solution that would please everyone, but there has to be the benefit and the well-being of the people and of Egypt at the front I Go back and insist and emphasize that the future Will rely on on the Egyptians and and I was not surprised at those who who who sort of went into the streets Two years ago where the future we not the current leaders, but the current and potential Leaders of Egypt and in that sense I would like to emphasize the importance of looking at the educational sector again Some will argue that this is a sort of a long-term strategy and I understand that But you always need long-term strategy, but also you need quick wins and you have to have that balance And I think in Egypt we have the the talent the the capacities if all in are all engaging And are invited to engage in a transparent way in a positive way Everybody will step up to to support and provide their inputs. I truly believe that the the future doesn't lie in the government We've had already a large chunk of our population working for the government pre 2011 it was six million six point one million I think post 2011 I think there were at least one million added So we're talking seven point one seven point two million I think it's time to really focus on the private sector and again you look at the Youth there is a bit of a change in the mindset that there is a culture sort of new approach that We want to go out there and take risks I think there is an element of fear that was sort of broken in 2011 and that fear Sort of hit also that risk averse mentality that that at least youth had And now that they just want to go out there and start their own companies and fail and learn from from from their failures Well, that that was not easy to to start by the way I was accused several times four years ago even before 2011 when I one day said we need to celebrate failure obviously, I did not mean to do out there and and and and and Party but celebrate failure. I meant that we need to not shy away from failing We need to learn from our mistakes. That's the only way we can appreciate success and move on. That's happening now Still early days still we need scalability. We need sustainability But that I think that's an extremely important point to help another challenge that is facing the economy Which is unemployment? So again, we go back to the model of the jigsaw puzzle with 1,000 maybe 10,000 piece I hope not but there has to be catalysts for change and catalysts for change could be in the form of policies that are properly implemented and that are clear that are Acceptable by the larger community and that work for the people I Think Egypt Deserves that it has been going through a rough time for a long time and and and that's a personal opinion It's not just 30 years. I think it's 60 years and and you don't fix 60 years overnight It takes maybe a generation to fix that but that generation to to so that the following generation could benefit From from that. I think work needs to start now Final keywords. I'd like to leave you with is It's important when we move forward to reconcile with the past to reconcile with with different elements of the community But also to focus to focus not to try to fix everything at the same time People might say we need to isolate problems. We need to look at one problem at a time That might be true, but not totally. We need to isolate problems, but work in parallel I think over the past two years there was a major focus with the with the political issues and and sort of the economic issues were left on the side more or less and I don't think this is This is leaving us in a good in a good place, but as there's it fixable I truly believe so I Remain optimistic I remain positive and I think everybody that was here also share the same feeling that the question is Where to start and where to go from here? And I think we just to start somewhere as long as it that that point is a strong point where we can build on it where we Can when capitalized on what we have and and and and and take it from there It makes a hell of a difference when you keep thinking of something but but but you're not there You're not in it. You can't really feel it Once you start I think it becomes extremely easy. I don't want to sound that the the problems are Easily solvable, but they are solvable Many countries around the world faced similar situation maybe even worse But it's it's it's the community and I mean the sense of the community is the sense of the ecosystem As I said the private sector the government the individuals the civil society All needs to be engaged And and take it from there. Thank you very much