During the 6th ever National Youth Conference, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly opened the first session titled, ‘The Strategy of Building the Egyptian Person’, by outlining that character building would be the primary concern of the new cabinet. Such character building would be done, according to the PM, by reforming healthcare and education, strengthening cultural identity and placing a larger emphasis on sports. When talking about the new mission, Madbouly justified it by saying that “After four years of working on security and stability, our goal is to launch the ‘Egypt Takes Off’ programme, [which involves] building the Egyptian character to improve the standard of living for citizens through housing projects and eliminating slums, followed by economic development to create jobs and activate the system of entrepreneurship.” The PM took care in saying that the ‘Egypt Takes Off’ programme will be done with overhaul of the education system, another sign on Egypt’s increased emphasis on youth. Ministers of Youth and Sport, as well as the Minister of Education also talked about the growth of infrastructure for their respective fields. They both talked about the growth in infrastructural spending in both of…
