Background
Aziz Sidki was born on July 1, 1920 Cairo, Egypt.
عزيز صدقي
Aziz Sidki was born on July 1, 1920 Cairo, Egypt.
Educated at Cairo, where he graduated from the faculty of engineering. He continued his studies in the USA, gaining an MSc in architecture at Oregon University, an MSc in city planning and a PhD in regional planning from Harvard University.
On his return from the USA in 1951 he became a lecturer in engineering at Alexandria University. Nasser appointed him to the cabinet for the first time in 1956 as Minister of Industry, then switched him in 1957 to be Minister of Presidential Affairs. From 1958 to 1964 he was Minister of Industry, then he became Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Industry and Mineral Wealth. In August 1965 he resigned after a bitter clash with Ali Sabri, then Prime Minister.
Nasser brought him out of the political wilderness a year later and made him presidential adviser on production. In October 1967 he was back as Minister of Industry and gave a vigorous boost to industrialisation projects and the expansion of oil production. When Sadat dismissed Ali Sabri in May 1971 it was Sadat who made the first public accusation of treason. He was appointed acting secretary-general of the Arab Socialist Union to reorganise the whole structure of the party and purge the extremists. In September 1971 he became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, Petroleum and Mineral Wealth.
On his appointment as Prime Minister on January 17, 1972, he imposed austerity measures with extra import duties on luxuries and a landowner’s tax of £E20 an acre. It did not smooth his path as Premier. Nor did he succeed in mollifying the students when he summoned their leaders to discuss their complaints. He went ahead with negotiations on Colonel Qadafi’s proposals for a merger of Libya and Egypt—agreed in the Tripoli Declaration of September 18, 1972—although it gladdened few Egyptian hearts.
When Sadat needed a change of wind he dismissed the puffed-out Sidki and installed himself as Prime Minister on March 27, 1973. But the talented technocrat is by no means finished politically. His time will come again for a senior role in government. In the meantime his abilities and experience remained at Sadat’s service with his appointment as adviser to the President.
Harvard-trained economic planner, made Prime Minister of the "confrontation government" in January 1972 and then dismissed 15 months later as the scapegoat for Egypt's aspirations remaining unfulfilled in March 1973 in terms of an acceptable Middle East settlement by negotiation or war. An earnest grey-haired technocrat, lacking the public relations techniques for deflecting public criticism.
Prone to over-optimism in his economic forecasts, he nonetheless played an important role in industrial development and oil exploitation in the late 1960s. His talent for organisation and committee work was employed by Sadat to restructure the Arab Socialist
Union after the left-wing infiltration in the Ali Sabri era. A man of profound loyalty to Sadat, especially over the Sabri challenge, he was retained as presidential adviser after being dropped as Prime Minister.