Egyptian Workshop Tackles Economic Freedom Policies

Nouh El-Harmouzi, editor of Minbaralhurriyya.org, is interviewed by one of three prominent Egyptian media outlets that covered the Egypt audit.

Nouh El-Harmouzi, director of Minbaralhurriyya.org, is interviewed by one of three prominent media outlets that covered the Egypt audit in Cairo.

The type of policy the Egyptian government should adopt for the betterment of Egypt’s economy was the hot topic of the “Economic Freedom of Egypt: Reality and Future Economic Freedom” workshop.  Seventy-five businessmen, academic scholars, government officials and members of the media joined in the discussion in Cairo, Egypt.  Most notably, Youssef Boutros-Ghali, Minister of Finance, Ambassador Hussein Elkamel and Magued Osman, Chairman of the Information and Decision Support Center, participated.

The attendees concluded the following:

  • Size of government: When government is too large, it crowds out the room for free economic activity and taxes away the legally earned property of individuals and families.
  • Access to sound money: Government can reduce economic freedom by reducing the value of legally earned property and income through inflation.
  • Freedom to trade: Egyptians should be free to buy and sell with whom they wish throughout  Egypt and the rest of the world.
  • Legal system: A well-functioning legal system is essential to protecting property and other rights and ensuring that the powerful are not able to use their influence to reduce the freedom of others.
  • Regulation: The ability to work for and hire whom you wish; begin and end a business as you wish; and borrow and lend from whom you wish.

    • (From left) Dr. Samir Radwan, Dr. Hanaa Kheir El Din, Dr. Heba Nassar, Ambassador Hussein Elkamel, Dr. Heba Handoussa, and Dr. Gouda Abdel-Khalek serve as panelists and concluded the workshop with final comments.

    (L-R) Samir Radwan, Hanaa Kheir El Din, Heba Nassar, Ambassador Hussein Elkamel, Heba Handoussa, and Gouda Abdel-Khalek serve as panelists and make final remarks to conclude the day.

Atlas Global Initiative for Free Trade, Peace, and Prosperity sponsored the one day workshop with the Cato Institute and the Frasier Institute.

The 2009 workshop is part of a series of workshops initiated in 2008 in Amman, Jordan. There are plans to for similar workshops to be held in Morocco and Lebanon.


This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 1:14 PM. It is filed under Atlas Global Initiative, Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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