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This is not the first project like this Egypt has tried. All have failed
by daedrdev 2mo ago
This is not the first project like this Egypt has tried. All have failed
- alephnerd 2mo agoState and financial capacity is much stronger in Egypt today versus previous attempts. Egypt's developmental indicators have finally caught up to where the CEE was 5-10 years ago but with a better demographic profile, and Gulf and Asian capital and technology partners are much more hands-on.
- cherryteastain 2mo agoIf you look at UNDP historical HDI data [1] you will see that Egypt barely caught up with the HDI levels of poorest Eastern European countries like Moldova from 10 years ago and is still well behind the HDI levels of better-off Eastern European countries like Czechia from 1990. [1] https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index#/indicies/HDI https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index#/in...
- alephnerd 2mo agoAnd there was no guarantee that Egypt would have reached this point today in 2026. A decade ago, the safer bet would have been that Egypt would collapse just like it's then developmental peer Syria. The fact that Egypt is at this point today is a testament to the fact that it's has robust enough state capacity that it was able to execute on projects. > better-off Eastern European countries like Czechia from 1990 Czechia is not Eastern Europe and was a very developed country. I'll wait for inglor_cz to eventually jump into this convo and give context around Czechoslovakia and Central Europe in the 1980s to 90s.
- cherryteastain 2mo agoSyria had an extremely destructive civil war and one of the worst collapses in living standards ever of any country (measured by however you want to look at it - HDI, GDP/capita...) Meanwhile Egypt was overtaken by Vietnam and performed similarly to peers like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Algeria, Philippines. Egypt's and Sisi's performance is decidedly average.
- alephnerd 2mo agoAnd if you remember 2010-13 Egypt was also on the verge of collapsing into a civil war like Syria and Yemen yet didn't. That took a Herculean amount of effort.
- rayiner 2mo agoYeah, Ottoman rule sucked.
- selimthegrim 2mo agoYugo wasn't doing so bad in 1990 before it imploded for other reasons (read: was "suicided")
- a34729t 2mo agoTo be fair, Egypt and Mexico made major reforms to their water usage in the past and succeeded. Compared to India, which failed abjectly.
- alephnerd 2mo agoHow did India's water usage reforms fail? I've been in Egypt and India - they aren't that different, and it's Indian companies that are working on and helping financing these megaprojects in Egypt via the credit line established after the pandemic [0] and it's Indian companies like Wabag that are implementing water treatment projects in Egypt [1]. [0] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-12/egypt-says-india-is-providing-credit-line-in-boost-to-economy https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-12/egypt-say... [1] - https://www.arabnews.com/node/2130826/middle-east https://www.arabnews.com/node/2130826/middle-east
- vjvjvjvjghv 2mo agoDo these Indian companies implement things in India?
- alephnerd 2mo agoYes. And they're the same companies that were contracted and subcontracted infrastructure across the Khaleej and ASEAN. Larsen & Toubro, Wabag, SP Group, EIL, Afcons, and others tend to have a chokehold on implementing and executing these kinds of projects in MENA because they co-finance projects with Gulf capital players who tend to have capital stakes in these Indian players as well.
- dyauspitr 2mo agoYes, you may have to update your knowledge on the insane infrastructure boom going on in India right now.
- cute_boi 2mo agoAnd, they aren't doing in sustainable way, worst than China.