ABSTRACT
The years between 1967 and 1974 observed remarkable political events driven by the shift of political power. Following the October 1973 war, Anwar Sadat, Nasser’s successor, proclaimed Egypt’s shift towards a new era of economic reform and open-door policies. The post-war economic recovery plan was introduced in the October Working Paper of 1974, articulating goals to boost Egypt’s economy. Sadat declared that the open door policy, or Infitah, aimed to establish new grounds of economic development ‘at rates that would surpass any that had been achieved before… an open economic policy that will guarantee all the funding needed for development’. 1 The government inaugurated a raft of legislation and strategies to outline the procedures and guidelines for the country’s development path. Revised monetary and fiscal policies to boost the Egyptian economy were designed to attract investors for profitable projects through critical approaches of the centralisation of planning, and the decentralisation of implementation. 2 The outcomes, in fact, disclosed significant changes in the course originally identified, from production to innumerable forms of unproductive trade (import/export) exemplified by heavy reliance on the income of Egyptian migrant workers, oil exports, tolls from the Suez Canal and tourism. The increase in the state’s financial resources was evident, but signs of ‘laissez-faire’ dominated a wide range of society, due chiefly to the increase in population.
