Ahmed Nazif
Dr. Ahmed Nazif (Arabic: أحمد نظيف ; born 1952) has served as the Prime Minister of Egypt since 14 July 2004. On 27 September 2005, he resigned enabling President Hosni Mubarak to call for General Elections. Nazif remained as a caretaker Prime Minister until the new government formed on 27 December 2005.
President Hosni Mubarak invited him to form the new government on 9 July 2004. Prime Minister Nazif was sworn in together with fourteen new cabinet ministers on 14 July 2004. He received immediate parliamentary backing through a formal vote of confidence. He is the youngest serving prime minister of Egypt since the founding of the Republic and the second youngest prime minister in the history of modern Egypt. His cabinet is known to be mainly composed of technocrats and well educated neo-liberals.It has also been rumoured that it is the richest cabinet in the history of the Republic.
He came to power replacing outgoing Prime Minister Atef Obeid who resigned at an emergency cabinet meeting, prompting the collapse of the four-year-old 34-member cabinet. Dr. Nazif served as the Minister for Communications and Information Technology in the Obeid Government. Before that, Dr. Nazif was a professor in the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University.
Government
Dr. Nazif has a reputation for being honest and modern. Interestingly, his name in Arabic means clean, so Arabic speakers hear his name as "Mr. Clean." Dr. Nazif and his Cabinet have managed to enhance the role of the private sector in implementing government strategy, a common view shared by most of his cabinet members which include:
- Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin Minister of Investment (Economist & NDP high policies committee member)
- Rashid Mohamed Rashid Minister of Industry and foreign trade ( former CEO of industrial giants such as Unilever & Fine Foods and board member of HSBC Egypt)
- Tarek Kamel Minister of Communications and Information Technology (Dr. Nazif's protoge' at the ministry)
- Ahmed Gamal el din Minster of Education ( former president of Mansoura University)
- Anas el Feki Minister of Media ( former head of the cultural palace and NDP high policies committee member)
- Amr salama Minister of higher learning (former president of Helwan University)
- Dr. Youssef Botrous Ghali Minister of Finance (former board member of el Ahly Bank and senior Economic Analyst at the IMF)
Along the many achievements of his short lived cabinet, the Nazif Government has managed to tackle some of the many issues on the agenda with reasonable effectivity such as issuing the new tax law, reducing tariffs to meet WTO demands, automating the government, reducing inflation, liberating the press, and pushing for constitutional reform which was finally proposed and implemented in 2005.
During his tenure as Minister for Communications and Information Technology he was credited with establishing Egypt's free internet connectivity plan as well as improving public access to computers through low-price computers sold by private producers through the Egyptian Telecommunications Company (Telecom Egypt), which falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry for Communications and Information Technology. Nazif's successor in the ministry of communications and long time friend Tarek Kamel has collaborated strongly to enhance the egyptian role in international IT markets and improve local infrastructure to support Egypt's exponentially growing demand for IT applications in everyday life.
Education and Family
Dr. Nazif holds a PhD in Computer Engineering from McGill University, Canada.
Dr. Nazif resides in a suburban complex in the 6th of October area with his wife and 2 sons. His two sons graduated from Manor House School after obtaining the IGCSE with one of them ranking third on the school in year 2000.