The Reflection of Economic Freedom on Sustainable Development in Egypt )Comparative Study)

Abstract

First: Introduction:

The case in which people can act with autonomy while in the pursuit of livelihood is Economic freedom. Any talk of economic freedom must contain, at its essence, the relation between governments and individuals. (E.F.) is a fundamental side of human freedom, a person’s most rights may be compromised without it. Generally, the government intervention in the individual autonomy limits economic freedom. The Economic Freedom is not a call for chaos, and the lack of government restrictions is not the economic freedom target, but the creation and maintenance of a mutual sense of freedom for all. As individuals enjoy the benefits of economic freedom, they have to respect the others economic freedoms and rights.

Economic freedom is mirrored in every aspect of the people’s life. Reduction of inflation and unemployment rates, the increase of income rates, the bettered standards of living, the improved quality of life and cleaner environments are among the results of the healthy levels of economic freedom in a country. An increase in the level of sustainable development comes next, since economic freedom and sustainable development are closely related. The expression “sustainable development” was presented in “Our Common Future”, or “the Brundtland report”, a report issued by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987. This report contained the definition of sustainable development:

“Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Sustainable development consists of three main pillars: Environmental sustainability, Economic sustainability and Social sustainability. These three pillars are interconnected and mutually enhancing elements of the same integrated operation of sustainable development. Second: Research Problem There is no doubt that Egypt made important steps in many fields of economic, social as well as environmental developments(except for the effect of the global financial crisis and also the Egyptian revolution of 25th of Jan 2011). The Egyptian economy has suffered a long period of instability and uncertainty as a result of its challenging economic and political transition. On the other side, Malaysia succeeded in attracting significant international attention for its impressive economic development record in nearly three decades. The Southeast Asian country’s economy has made quantum leaps with fast economic growth accompanied by more equitable income redistribution without the burden of inflation. When it comes to the issue of economic freedom, Malaysia made a serious progress in the past few years by implementing wide-ranging reforms to identify different structural weaknesses and encourage competitiveness. Egypt can always learn from Malaysia’s positive experiences. That, however, doesn’t mean that the negative lessons should not be considered.

And thus the Research problem can be summarized in the following questions: 1. What is the meaning of economic freedom and sustainable development? How can we measure them? What is the relation between economic freedom and sustainable development? 2. What did Malaysia do to achieve high levels of economic freedom? What is the reflection of Malaysia economic freedom and rapid economic growth on its environment? 3. What is the current performance of the Egyptian economic freedom and sustainable development? What are the challenges that face economic freedom and sustainable development in Egypt? And how Egypt can benefit from the Malaysian experience?