Aziz Sedky ( ar, عزيز صدقي, ; 1 July 1920 – 25 January 2008) was an Egyptian

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

. Sedky served as the Prime Minister of Egypt from 16 January 1972 until 26 March 1973. He was nicknamed the "father of Egyptian industry."

Early life and education

Aziz Sedky was born in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, Egypt, on 1 July 1920. He graduated with a degree in engineering from Cairo University in 1944. He went on to earn a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

economic planning Economic planning is a resource allocation mechanism based on a computational procedure for solving a constrained maximization problem with an iterative process for obtaining its solution. Planning is a mechanism for the allocation of resources b ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

Career

Sedky was appointed as a technical adviser to the Egyptian prime minister's office in 1955, a few years after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. He next served as a full-time member of the services board until 1956. In 1956, Sedky was appointed as minister of industry by the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...

. Among Sedky's tasks as minister was the supervision of an

industrialization Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

program, which was financed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. The Soviets were, at the time, an important ally of the Egpytian government. Sedky launched a five-year industrialization plan in 1957. This initiative was later merged into a "general five-year development plan", which lasted from 1961 until 1965. He was a member of the

Arab Socialist Union The Arab Socialist Union may refer to: *Arab Socialist Union (Egypt), active 1962–78 *Arab Socialist Union (Iraq), active 1964–68 *Libyan Arab Socialist Union, active 1971−77 *Arab Socialist Union Party (Syria), founded in 1973 *Democratic Ar ...

from 1962 and became part of its secret unit, the Socialist Vanguard (Arabic: al-Tanzim al-Tali‘i), which was also called the Vanguard Organization, in 1963 when the unit was established. Sedky was promoted as deputy prime minister responsible for industry and mineral resources in 1964. Simultaneously, he also became the minister of petroleum and mineral resources in 1964 as well. In November 1970, Sedky was also named as the

deputy prime minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

for production and trade. Sedky was appointed

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

on 16 January 1972, following the resignation of Mahmoud Fawzi. He remained in office until 26 March 1973 when he was replaced by

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

in the post.

Death

Aziz Sedky died at the age of 87 on 25 January 2008, at the Hospital Europeen Georges Pompidou in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, France.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sedky, Aziz 1920 births 2008 deaths 20th-century prime ministers of Egypt Petroleum ministers of Egypt Politicians from Cairo Cairo University alumni Harvard University alumni 20th-century Egyptian engineers Arab Socialist Union (Egypt) politicians Egyptian expatriates in the United States Engineers from Cairo