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International organizations are used to inventing their own language. For example, this applies to what they call “marginalized” or “the most vulnerable” social categories. In our common language, we can guess that these are the poor, the wretched, the needy… whom no one cares about within the circles of power, it is thus the world’s benefactors who take care of them. Absolutely alone, sometimes with the minister for decoration.
On the contrary, the local administration does its best to hinder progress. For instance, the Amman program funded by the World Bank, which was supposed to target 150,000 households, has failed to reach 100,000 households three years after its launch and one year after its implementation. Each of the power figures tries to include “their poor” in the list, without going through the mandatory “field verification” stage for this program.
Some might argue that, in a bankrupt country, this is a normal situation taken care of by the global benefactors. But while waiting for a global and radical solution to our economic crisis, perhaps through the IMF, isn’t there anything we can do at the local level, even if we are completely broke? Actually, there is. Since we cannot help the poor with aid, we can at least take action to reduce the cost of living. One of the economically proven ways to lower costs is to promote competition. In which areas could it be done? This could be applied to all fields, and we will provide a few examples below:
•         Power generators: Break the neighborhood monopolies, which operate with obvious political and municipal collusion, by opening the service to any participant and allowing competition in tariffs.
•         Mobile telephony: Put an end to the state monopoly with its two mediocre twin companies, burdened with hundreds of superfluous employees. The idea is to introduce a third private operator, pending complete liberalization, and to allow subscribers to switch between operators without penalties. Competition, which has never existed in this sector, will have to do the rest.
•         Internet: Stop harassing private, illegal providers and allow them to have direct international connections, bypassing the state monopoly. Then, authorize them to expand and operate the fiber optic network, something that Ogero, in its legendary lethargy, was unable to do, even at the peak of its glory before the crisis.
•         Transportation: Stop hindering alternative collective transportation solutions such as tuk-tuks, carpooling, or recently launched applications (let’s admit that we are now in a poor country!). Then, entrust the Charles Hélou bus station to a private company to better organize the service and reduce operating costs and fares. And, for heaven’s sake, donors, stop offering buses to the Ministry of Transportation and, instead, entrust them to private operators or nonprofit organizations in different regions.
•         Commerce: Importing traders have adapted to the crisis by seeking to introduce new, cheaper products, or by sourcing the same products from a third country. This explains, for example, the competitive price of Signal toothpaste or Smeds cheese, which are “made in Egypt” under license. As for local products, NGOs can be entrusted with organizing weekly markets throughout the country, where only producers offer their products, which will be cheaper once intermediaries are eliminated.
•         Distribution: Allow comparative advertising between products and between points of sale by highlighting, for example, the cheapest supermarkets based on objective criteria, and the cheapest products in each supermarket by type of product.
•         Flights: Put an end to the monopoly of MEA, which has been turned into a sacred national icon while accumulating high management errors and presenting customers with high prices. Then, authorize the creation of other airlines, especially a low-cost charter.
A multitude of similar examples could be brought up. But first, the Ministry of Economy must be willing to work on such solutions. Most importantly, the state must let go of its destructive and absurd habits which consist of doing nothing and preventing others from acting.
