Background:

Two different subjects are addressed in the following recording: the restoration of the Hanging Church in Old Cairo, Egypt, and the Jordanian economist ʾUmayyah Ṭūqān’s views on the MENA summit in 1995.

Saint Virgin Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church, known as the Hanging Church was built during the Byzantine Empire era and is of great historical significance to the Copts in Egypt and worldwide. The church had a cathedral-like status during the 7^th century and thus there is a lot of historical importance that concerns this church. It is also believed that the Holy Family ate from one of the trees that is next to the church during their visit to Egypt. 

ʾUmayya Ṣalāḥ Ṭūqān, a Jordanian economist and later Governor of the Central Bank of Jordan is talking at a press conference about the upcoming second edition of the MENA summit. The summit was initiated by the US and Russian presidents with the support and endorsement of the EU, Canada, and Japan and was held from the 29^th to 31^st of October 1995 in Amman, Jordan.

For more information on this topic, please refer to the tape: Jordanian Politician al-Rawābdah’s take on the Palestinian Diaspora/ Jordanian Economist Ṭūqān and the summit:

http://www.arabwestreport.info/en/jordanian-politician-al-raw%C4%81bdah%...

and

Jordanian economist ʾUmayya Ṣalāḥ Ṭūqān on the MENA summit 1995 III/Andrew De Carpentier on Muslim – Christian relations and Jordanian Minister of tourism 1995:

http://arabwestreport.info/en/jordanian-economist-%CA%BEumayya-%E1%B9%A3...

Side A:

In 1992, there had been a critical earthquake that destructed many building in Cairo, including many churches. These churches needed to be restored says the Archpriest of the Hanging Church, Markos ʿAzīz including the Hanging Church, the tower of Babylon and the Coptic Museum which had all been affected by the earthquake. The aftermath of the earthquake led to a downfall in tourism to these Christian places, but it was said that the churches continued to try and bring the tourists back to visit. The church allegedly never asked to close the church for restoration purposes but intended to restore them whilst at the same time keeping these open for visitors.

Father Markos lodged a complaint against the Minister of Egyptian Antiquities Dr. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Nūr al-Dīn for not paying enough attention to the worrying state of the church. Father Markos was afraid that the church was going to collapse and asked the minister why the restoration process was going so slowly. Dr. Nūr al-Dīn believed that the Hanging Church was not at risk of collapsing and predicted that the church would survive for many years to come. Father Markos responded that he could set up a report explaining everything that needed to be done in detail to prove to the minister that it is actually quite dangerous to stay in the church unrestored. The priest believed that a very significant church in Egypt could vanish if it was not restored and that would be a shame. The restoration that was done in the 1980s had allegedly not been sufficient as the church continued to deteriorate exponentially, the priest said.

Side B:

The main topic of interest in this press conference is the importance of the continued efforts of the MENA countries to confirm to international standards to gain competitiveness. This is based on the idea that “governments are no longer the sole custodian of public interest, governments should stick to what they do best, which is to maintain national security, to protect the environment, protect the customer, to ensure that there is no monopoly in the economy”, and otherwise take on a passive role in the economy. He goes on to acknowledge that this may be easier in some countries than in others, but continues to stress liberal reform. In the summit, different MENA countries presented project proposals and Jordan’s 27 projects are mainly focused on infrastructure. The summit is helped by the World Economic Forum and they will apply their methodology.  According to ʾUmayya the main difference between the first and second summit is that the upcoming one is more concrete and focuses on practical projects. The fear that Arab economies will be vulnerable to Israel’s integration into the Middle-Eastern market is raised but ʾUmayya responds to this by saying that this fear is rooted in misconceptions. He argues that Israeli markets are different, that everyone would gain from economic growth and that Israel will, in fact, accelerate the MENA region’s rise up to international standards as a natural outcome of the peace process. The issue of harmonizing and coordinating trade policies, legislation, standards and specifications is raised and will be addressed in the summit, as he sees that there is a need for industries in the region to complement each other better, using the example of the European Union. The Red Sea – Dead Sea Canal was also brought up and we are informed that the four regional parties have reached a consensus after many meetings and that some of the aspects of the project were dropped in order to present investors with a joint outlook.