Editor’s Note: John Defterios is CNN’s Emerging Markets Editor and anchor of Global Exchange, CNN’s prime time business show focused on the emerging and BRIC markets. You can watch it on CNN International at 1600 GMT, Sunday to Thursday.
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To create jobs, Morsy needs to spark foreign direct investment and tourism, writes Defterios
Defterios: Egypt's transition after the ouster of Mubarak is a high stakes experiment in democracy
"Egypt will never be bankrupt and will not kneel, God willing," Morsy said, as he closed out 2012
It was January 25, 2011 – day two of the World Economic Forum – when the brisk winds of change from Tahrir Square swept through the Swiss Alpine village of Davos.
Just a month before, in Tunisia, a vegetable seller triggered the Arab Spring when he doused himself with petrol and lit himself on fire. He had been frustrated by a sheer lack of opportunity, despite headline economic growth that looked promising on paper.
Tunisia, with a population of just over 10 million, is one matter. Egypt is eight times larger, and 40% of its people live on less than $2 a day.
Egypt’s uprising and transition after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak is a high stakes experiment in democracy under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. The Brotherhood secured power seven months ago, installing Mohammed Morsy the country’s president.
Read more: Egyptians approve new constitution, unofficial results show
