Army protected Egyptian state from collapse, says Ali

CAIRO – Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Board and Editor-in-Chief of al-Bawaba News, Abdelrahim Ali, said on Saturday that the Egyptian economy suffered greatly as a result of the January 25 and June 30 revolutions.

He added that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi started his rule in mid-2014 with a meeting with a host of investors and businessmen.

During the meeting, Ali said, the president asked these investors and businessmen to contribute to building a new Egypt.

Some investors refused, however, to be part of this process or contribute to major projects, Ali said.

He said Sisi suggested that investors keep their profits within the 20-30 per cent margin.

Most investors rejected this, but the army accepted the same profit margin for the projects it implemented, Ali said.

He said the presence of the army in the business arena bridged a gap left behind by investors who refused to be part of Egypt’s rebuilding.

The army, he said, was the only state institution that backed the Egyptian people in its struggle against the Muslim Brotherhood.