Kamal al-Ganzuri

Kamal al-Ganzuri (c. 1976)

Kamal Ahmed al-Ganzuri ( Arabic كمال أحمد الجنزوري, DMG Kamāl Aḥmad al-Ǧanzūrī ) (born January 12, 1933 in Garwan, district of Bagor in the Al-Minufiyya governorate ; † March 31, 2021 ) was an Egyptian agronomist, economist and politician .

Al-Ganzuri has held the post of Prime Minister twice . He held office for the first time from January 2, 1996 to October 5, 1999 during the Mubarak regime and headed the El-Ganzouri First Cabinet . On November 24, 2011, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which took power after the fall of Mubarak in January 2011, appointed al-Ganzuri to succeed the resigned Prime Minister Essam Sharaf. Sharaf and his cabinet resigned after new protests broke out. The reason for the renewed unrest was the constitutional guidelines that the SCAF had presented a week earlier, in which the military placed itself above all civil institutions. The constitutional guidelines of the military withdrew the mandate from the future - yet to be elected - parliament to determine the constitution itself. Al-Ganzuri's task was to form a transitional government until the end of the parliamentary elections.

politics

youth

After a degree in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Cairo al-Ganzuri studied at the University of Michigan in the US and has been at this university in economics doctorate .

Clothing in various political offices

Al-Ganzuri was a member of the board of directors of the Sadat Academy for Administrative Sciences from 1962 to 1967. In 1974 he was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. In 1975 he became governor of the province of Al-New Valley , 1976 Governor of the government of Beni Suef . From 1977 to 1986 he was head of the Institute for National Planning (INP) in Cairo, which has a great influence on the planning of development lines of the Egyptian economy. From 1986 to 1996 he was Deputy Prime Minister in the cabinet of Atif Muhammad Nagib Sidqi .

Participation in privatization policy in the Mubarak era

During this time he played a major role in the credit and rescheduling negotiations with the IMF , World Bank and USAID and in the result of pressure from these organizations reversing the polarity of the Egyptian economy. If the country's economy had been strongly centralized under Nasser and dominated by state-owned companies, there was now a switch to a liberal economic policy and deregulation, which went hand in hand with extensive privatization of state-owned companies.

The privatizations officially began after the Egyptian government had accepted a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the IMF in May 1991, in which they agreed in return for loans granted by the IMF and World Bank (400 or US $ 300 million), obliged to implement an "Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment Program" (ERSAP) drafted by the IMF , and in June 1991 Act 203/1991 (Public Sector Law) adopted.

314 State-owned enterprises (SOEs = state-owned enterprises - 51% to 100%) were designated for privatization and grouped into 27 holdings, with each of these holdings grouping the enterprises of a certain production branch. The privatization of 51-100% state-owned companies aimed to achieve several goals:

• The poor productivity of (state) companies should be improved.
• Private domestic investments should be stepped up (+ foreigners drawn into the country).
• The money that came in through the sale of the companies was supposed to fill the treasury and improve Egypt's economic situation as a whole.

From 1993 to 2000 (the time when Ganzuri was either Deputy or Prime Minister of Egypt) the privatization process took place in 3 phases:

• Between 1993 and 1995, 31 companies were privatized (generating revenue of US $ 772.36 million)
• From 1996 to 1998 (al-Ganzuri premier) this process accelerated and a total of 85 companies were privatized (and proceeds of US $ 2,543.8 million were achieved)
• From 1999 to 2000 (as early as the Abaid cabinet) the number of privatizations decreased and “only” 56 companies were sold by the state (and proceeds of US $ 1,164.88 were achieved).

First appointment as Prime Minister

After Sidqi's resignation in January 1996, Mubarak asked al-Ganzuri to form a new government. In the period from January 4, 1996 to October 5, 1999, he became Prime Minister of Egypt for the first time, succeeding Atif Sidqi in office. In 1999 he was replaced by Atif Abaid .

Renewed appointment

In the wake of profound differences of opinion between the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the Sharaf Cabinet after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution , which led to the resignation of the Sharaf Cabinet, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces appointed Kamal al-Ganzuri as Prime Minister of Egypt on November 24, 2011. This is the second time that this office has been entrusted to him, albeit not on the part of the President.

The new El-Ganzouris second cabinet - approved by the Supreme Military Council - comprised 28 ministers. 16 new ministers joined the cabinet, nine ministers had already belonged to the Sharaf cabinet and three ministers had already held government offices during the Mubarak regime; Muhammad Hussein Tantawi , who at the time headed the military council and was also defense minister, should be counted as fourth. The second El-Ganzuri cabinet acted - as planned - as an interim government until after the parliamentary and presidential elections and was replaced on August 2, 2012 by the Kandil cabinet under the leadership of the newly elected President Morsi .

Tahrir Square activists rejected al-Ganzuri and his new cabinet. In particular, the appointment of General Mohamed Ibrahim as the new Minister of the Interior met with criticism. "As activists, we know his history and the way he deals with protesters," said Ingy Hamdy, spokeswoman for the April 6 Youth Movement . Ibrahim was responsible for the notorious violence against Sudanese refugees in December 2005, in which at least 28 people were killed. What was meant was the forcible evacuation of one of around 3 000 Sudanese refugees (including many from the crisis region Darfur ) in a park in the Cairo district of Mohendessin near the UNHCR office by police and security forces on December 30, 2005, in which many Sudanese were killed. Ibrahim from 2003 until 2006 General Police Directorate of Giza (Director General of Giza Police Directorate). The Sudanese were asylum seekers who had already been rejected and who wanted to resume their asylum procedures with a three-month sit-down strike. After examining the denials by the authorities in cooperation with the UNHCR, all 462 people arrested during the eviction had been released by January 30, 2006.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kamal Ahmed al Ganzuri , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 05/2012 from January 31, 2012, in the Munzinger archive , accessed on February 7, 2012 ( beginning of article freely available)
2. ↑ Egypt's former PM Ganzouri dies at 88. In: cgtn.com. March 31, 2021, accessed April 1, 2021 . 
3. ^ Egypt's new PM claims more powers than predecessors; EU calls for civilian government. ( Memento from July 19, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Alarabiya.net, November 25, 2011.
4. ↑ Who is Kamal Ganzouri, Egypt's new Prime Minister? ( Memento from November 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Bikyamasr, November 25, 2011.
5. ↑ Benedikt Rüttimann: A first, small step. In: Basler Zeitung-Online , November 22, 2011 (Interview with Prof. Reinhard Schulze , Islamic scholar, University of Bern).
6. ↑ USAID: The Results and Impacts of Egypt's Privatization Program. Special Study, August 2002, p. 13f.
7. ^ Rania Ihab Naguib: Institutional and Regulatory frameworks of Privatization and FDI: A comparative study between Egypt and Argentina. University of Bath + Bristol, undated, p. 6.
8. ^ Rania Ihab Naguib: Institutional and Regulatory frameworks of Privatization and FDI: A comparative study between Egypt and Argentina. University of Bath + Bristol, no year, pages 7 and 11: Graphic: Privatization Transactions in Argentina and Egypt / Number of Privatizations 1988 - 2000
9. ↑ Kamal al-Gansuri new Prime Minister in Egypt. In: Welt Online , November 24, 2011.
10. ^ Finally, El-Ganzouri cabinet sworn in. Ahram-Online, December 7, 2011.
11. ↑ Egyptian army decree hands powers to Ganzouri; New cabinet sworn in. ( Memento from July 16, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Alarabiya.net, December 7, 2011.
12. ↑ 6 April Movement reaffirms rejection of El-Ganzouri government. Ahram-Online, December 7, 2011.
13. ↑ Bio Mohamed Ibrahim Youssef ( Memento of December 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Ministry of the Interior of Egypt (MOI)
14. ↑ Fischer Weltalmanach 2007, p. 49f.
15. ↑ See another illustration: Interior Minister denies responsibility for refugee killings in 2005. Egypt Independent, December 10, 2011.
16. ↑ Omnia Al Desoukie: Meet the new ministers of Ganzoury's Cabinet. In: The Daily News Egypt. December 8, 2011, accessed April 1, 2021 .