The bread crisis was imposed for the second day in a row during the meeting of President Hosni Mubarak with the Prime Minister and a number of ministers.
Presidential Spokesman Suleiman Awad said that the President began the meeting with yesterday's topic of the bread crisis. He asked Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Local Development Minister Mohamed Abdel Salam Mahgoub to provide him with a weekly report on the government's efforts to end bread queues in the provinces. He also asked to separate production from distribution to ensure availability of bread to all, particularly in densely populated and limited income areas.
President Mubarak said this is the responsibility of the Prime Minister, the Minister for Social Solidarity, the Minister for Local Development and the governors, pointing out that the armed forces national service and bakery division and the Ministry of Interior are helping to solve this problem.
A diplomatic source said that the President did not task the Ministry of Defense alone to solve the crisis, but only to contribute to its solution, as the armed forces have other major tasks related to preserving the sovereignty and stability of the nation.
Awad added: "The meeting discussed two topics. The first was the preparation for the National Population Conference to be held in June, and the second was the performance of the government regarding urban and industrial communities."
He said that Egypt's population was 43 million when Mubarak came to power, and that the President then held a population conference and started efforts to generate awareness of the seriousness of population growth.
He also said that the minister of health and population submitted a report on the development of the population of Egypt, which was 22 million in 1952 but now became over 76 million according to last year's census, yet going down by 9.1% as opposed to 8.2% in September 1994.
The minister of health and population said medical services have succeeded in lowering infant mortality and increasing life expectancy to the levels in advanced countries as per the United Nations report on human development, but this increased the population in rural areas.
President Mubarak spoke at length about this problem and its repercussions on economic development and said it is a national issue that affects the quality of life of the Egyptian people.
Awad also said that President Mubarak was briefed in the meeting of the development plan for North Giza and Imbaba, saw the maps of this project and asked to complete it in October so that people tangibly feel such development.
The President Mubarak was also briefed of the plan for land required for industrial and urban investment in a legal and orderly scheme so as to avoid the emergence of new slums.
Awad said that President Mubarak will hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss setting up new axis roads and railways to link urban cities horizontally and vertically and allow new industrial clusters, which the President said would push investments and provide new job opportunities.
Asked about traffic bottlenecks, Awad said: "Traffic bottlenecks are the result of the unplanned population growth that depletes the available resources, including streets and parking lots," pointing out that President Mubarak said during the meeting that people must know how an unplanned population growth can affect their daily lives, not only as far as bread queues, shortages in goods and problems in housing are concerned, but also as regards traffic.
Awad concluded: "President Mubarak will meet the Slovenian Foreign Minister on Tuesday, whose country is presiding over the European Union in its current session, and the Russian Minister of Energy and Economy."
The meeting with President Mubarak was attended by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi, Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali, Endowments Minister Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq, Minister of Economic Development Othman Mohamed Othman, Information Minister Anas el-Fiqi, Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, Housing Minister Ahmed el-Maghrabi, Minister of Trade and Industry Rashid Mohammed Rashid, Minister for Social Solidarity Ali Meselhi, Minister Health and Population Hatem el-Gabali, Transport Minister Mohamed Lotfi Mansour, Minister of Local Development Mohamed Abdel Salam Mahgoub and Dr. Zakaria Azmi, Chief of Presidential Staff.
