Egypt’s Kafr el-Sheikh Governor asked workers to donate one day off from their monthly payroll for “Tahya Masr” government Fund .
On phone interview with CBC (pro-government)channel, Major General Nasr Nasr, governor of Kafr El-Sheikh, said that there are 80,000 officials working in the governorate if they cut off 10 pounds from their salaries, the government will accumulate 7 to 8 million for Long Live Egypt fund.
He also added that those who reject, need to submit a request to be removed from the list, as reported by al-Youm al 7 – the Seventh Day -an Egyptian privately owned daily newspaper.
The Thaya Masr Fund was originally initiated and created by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2014 to help funding projects to support and to revive the cash-strapped national economy.
In fact, al-Sisi’s governing way has witnessed many incidents when he asked the Egyptians to donate to national projects as a solution to the country’s economy.
known for his controversial solutions for Egypt’s economy,
Al-Sisi once asked the Egyptian bank officials in one of his speeches to find mechanisms to benefit from the “change”(coins as opposed to banknotes) to install them in “small projects for Egypt”.
He said, “Can we take it (the change)? I don’t know how will you do it? I mean that the money change as the 50 piasters and 1 pound in the transactions can be deposited in a special bank account for financing projects and services.”
Al-Sisi added in a speech that was broadcast via the Egyptian state-owned T.V. that Egyptians want to donate to these projects but they don’t know the mechanism.
Al-Sisi continued, “Here is a strong mechanism: we are talking about the transactions of almost 20 or 30 million people daily,” “if the change is 1 pound and 90 piasters, it would reach a huge sum; if we get this “change”, we will have 10 to 12 billion Egyptian pounds”
“Please, I want this money; but I don’t know how?”
In response, al-Sisi’s initiative has caused a mocking stream through the social networking sites as activists launched a hashtag: “Say Good morning to Egypt and donate your “change” The hashtag quickly topped the list of comments on Twitter at the time.
At that time, Al-Sisi’s suggestions were mocked by the social media when he asked the Egyptians for donating money to the government to solve Egypt’s economic problems.
On February 24 2016, Al-Sisi said in a speech at al-Galaa Theater, Cairo – where he launched the government’s long-term sustainable development strategy, “Egypt Vision 2030 – that the Egyptian people should donate to the government, saying, “We should all say: “Good morning, Egypt’ and donate one pound,” he said, adding that the Egyptians should support their national economy against foreign threats which seek to destroy Egypt.
One of the most quoted lines from the speech came when Sisi said, “I will use a very difficult expression …If it were possible for me to be sold, I would sell myself.”
At that time, social media users mocked Sisi’s improvised speech for weeks. One prankster even puts Al-Sisi up for sale on the global auction site eBay describing him as a “lightly used field marshal.”
Al-Sisi, a former general who rose to power after he launched a military coup against Morsi, pledged to enact economic changes and improve the lives of Egyptians. However, his economic policies didn’t only fail in resolving Egypt’s economic problems but they were escalated in an unprecedented way in the country’s history.
Moreover, al-Sisi urged belt-tightening in this country of over 90 million people as well as strict austerity measures since the International Monetary Fund in 2016.
In November 2016, Egypt signed a $12 billion three-year International Monetary Fund (IMF)loan agreement tied to sweeping economic reforms such as tax hikes and subsidy cuts.
