the turkish coast guard seizes a cargo ship with 300 syrian refugees on board. ♪ hello, this is al jazeera, live interest doha i'm adrian finighan. high stakes in egypt, the government pins its economic hopes to a global financial summit getting underway. iraq's prime minister says the victory in tikrit only days away as forces advance on the center of the city. and swedish prosecutors now plan to question wikileaks

founder in london overallegations of sexual assault. the turkish coast guard has seized a cargo vessel carrying more than 300 syrian ref fees. the coast guard also fired on the boat that was on its way to italy. turkish officials said that the coast guard shot at the ship's engine room off of the peninsula off it ignored warnings to stop. the passengers who have been detained include 85 children. more from zana hoda in beirut. >> reporter: syrians yet again find themselves in the middle of a crossfire. what we understand is that the coast guard fired warning shots the ship ignored those warning shots, and then the coast guard used live ammunition. this was really the first time they used live ammunition. we know there were no injuries

but the people on board that ship are now detained. more than 300 people the majority syrian refugees. what we understand is that they will be questioned. the policy is when turkey arrests illegal immigrants they usually deport them back to their country, but they are expected to either be placed in camps, but this incident, really just the latest in a series of incidents which involve syrians trying to find their way to europe trying to find a better life. just a few days ago, a ship sank off of the coast of italy, and some people who were on board that ship were refugees living in lebanon, syrian palestinians who escaped the fighting in damascus, they took this dangerous journey, but they had no other choice they felt. egypt is pitting its hopes for economic revival on a

financial summit which is just getting underway. heads of state from across the region are attending along with foreign politicians and investors. friday is the first of three days of -- of this conference. several large-scale investments are expected to be announced. this is president sisi just opening the conference. let's listen in. >> translator: your majesties, your excellencies your high necessaries, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome you all here in the name of the people and the government of the arab republic of egypt. i welcome our partners in development for the new egypt. those who are in agreement about the necessary to work for the welfare for the progress of humanity.

those who want to meet here today to have a role in paving the way for stability and welfare for people who's eager for development and welfare. welcome you all here in the conference of egypt economic development, egypt the future. egypt has always found -- from the arab countries to support egypt. our meeting today is a result of sincere efforts exerted by the late king abdullah of -- king of saudi arabia. [ applause ] >> may his soul rest in peace. [ applause ]

>> translator: through his invitation to have such a conference, the kingdom of saudi arabia is always like this and will be like this under the leadership of the custodian of the two harlem mosques king [ inaudible ]. [ applause ] >> translator: these will be the stands of the kingdom of saudi arabia towards it's arab countries. this is the frame made by king abdullah and this is the frame followed and approved by his sons. i would like also to thank and express my appreciation to the efforts of the state of the united arab emirates. [ applause ]

>> translator: under the leadership of his highness. [ applause ] >> translator: represented here today by his heiness. [ applause ] >> translator: vice president, prime minister, and the ruler of [ inaudible ] in order to clear all in the support of egypt, and bring [ inaudible ] to egypt, and the leadership of the uae that the egyptian people have seen how sincere you are and how supportive you are to the egyptian economy. [ applause ] >> translator: now for the [ inaudible ] country, for kuwait let me say these are always before words to prove the

relations and the continuous support of kuwait to egypt, and his heiness is here today to express his belief and the belief of kuwait in the arab solidarity. [ applause ] >> translator: it's a also worth mentioning here to express gratitude to his majesty the jordanian monarch. [ applause ] >> translator: the monarch of bahrain. [ applause ] >> translator: for the ongoing support to egypt and its people. this reflects how deep are the relations with egypt. egypt has found all support from these two countries. also i would like to thank all our brothers kings, and

presidents of the arab states that are giving us the honor of being here today in egypt. ladies and gentlemen, this is a moment that is witnessing great participation, distinguished participation, governments, countries, and international organizations are here today. i would like to express my gratitude in the name of egypt, and in my name i would like to express my thanks to them. the meaning of their participation is or will be joint that will be the benefit of all parties, not only being a role in achieving progress and achieving welfare, but it will go deep into other dimensions and will participate definitely for achieving the social justice

and bridging the gaps between the [ inaudible ] of the people and these also will help a lot in providing so many chances for new jobs and for the youth of egypt. the egyptian society is 25% of the population of the middle east. stability in egypt is a very important role for the civility of the whole region. we need to make sure that these power will be for the benefit of the stability of the nation and for the region. this is a comprehensive development for egypt. the development will go strong in all things and all domains to achieve the balanced and fair development and this will be for the sake of building a modern state. a modern state that is not only

gaining that prestige of its all civilization, but a state that will go to the future will go to the promising future for their citizens. egypt will be a model of the arab and islamic civilization with the great values of this civilization. egypt is a state that denounced violence and extremism. egypt is a state that respects the neighborhood. egypt is a state that defends and not commits any aggression. egypt is a state that believes in equality. and egypt is a state that believes in great effort to improve the human civilization. i will repeat this again. egypt is presenting itself as a model of islamic and arab civilization with all of the good values with all efforts against violence and extremism. [ applause ]

>> translator: a state that boosts -- the region's stability, respects the neighborhood. [ applause ] >> translator: a state that defends and not commits any aggression a state that respects the other, a state that believes that the difference is a way to more knowledge and to enrich the human civilization. ladies and gentlemen, the egyptian people all over the history, has been playing a role in defending its nation in defending its arab and islamic nation. egypt is and will be the first line of defense against any threat to the region and the egyptian people -- the honor of egyptian people is continuing, is setting beautiful examples of how to be aware and how to be up

to responsibilities through maintaining the identity of the egyptian state, through defending the egyptian identity. through understanding the economic decisions that a must to be the road to development and better future. all thanks and appreciation to the people of my country. [ applause ] >> translator: all thanks and appreciation to the people of my country that look for boosting partnership with the friendly countries to egypt, adopting serious procedures on the economic level and on the social level in order to achieve that change in the way of administrating the economy and to achieve the best use of resources, and to establish the social partnership in being up

to responsibilities in protecting those that need a lot of at tenning, and increasing the efficiency of public services in achieving justice here and there, these are the dreams and ambitions for the egyptian people and these will be turned into reality through hard work through being patient, through the support given to us by our arab and international partners. [ applause ] >> translator: the egyptian economy is an ongoing [ inaudible ] and is [ inaudible ] on a clear vision of free move to support the market economy that believes in the role of the private sector in paving the way to [ inaudible ]. egypt has its own sustainable

strategy. the long-term strategy until 2030 with the aim of building a modern democratic society to be open to the whole world. we have preferred such strategy according to the plans made with the support of the public sector private sector and civil society with the aim of applying the policies and the programs and initiatives they are to be endorsed in order to achieve these economic goals, and here allow me just to go quickly through the main points of our approach to achieve development. the first point is to restore the economic stability for the state. this includes a new policy formula and to restore the

financial balance through the deficit and the budget deficit, and to go through a system -- a tax system that is fair for the [ inaudible ] of the society. monetary policy that will keep and maintain stability and the good prices together with the increase of development of growth -- growth development to control the inflation and to apply reforms in the energy field. also accompanied by lower prices for food and commodities. these procedures came from our vision that says stability is part and parcel of the ongoing works and activities of the works -- domain. we also understand the necessity

of taking the reforms to the utmost point in order to achieve the best results and we have seen some increase of these activities during the first quarter, and this says that egypt is going through the right path of development. the second point to enhance the investment environment and to attract investment through some legislations that will help in this regard to overcome all of the things that will handicap the activities of investors to adopt clear-cut policies in order to guarantee equal chances for everyone under the umbrella then a new investment low that will help in this regard and will develop the system of

services given to investors in order to pave the way for the arab and the foreign investments. also to pave the way for sorting out so many [ inaudible ] in the field of investment and the egyptian government has committed itself to pay back money to the foreign agencies. egypt will always respect its international and regional commitment and egypt is also keen to create a competitive market that will help a lot in achieving the comprehensive development, according to the plan of increasing the development growth to more than 6% during the five coming years. this will go on with the aim to decrease unemployment by 10%

during the next five years. the third point, the national projects and the ambitious plans in all things and domains. this will achieve development, recreate jobs at the same time will create a force for the investors. the egyptian government has adopted a clear-cut strategy to increase productivity, to increase electricity, and the government has started already the implementation of this plan in order to cover the domestic consumption and to be able to meet the needs of the investment sector. this strategy the long-term strategy, is not only related to the current needs, but also to make always of the future needs available. this will create a stable and

sustainable environment for investment. in addition to that we have the plan of the administrative division of the government putting in mind the economic and social domains into consideration, and this will help us to create an environment in order for the demographic nature to be [ inaudible ] and will pave the way for agriculture and industrial development. the boldness of the government rate will go on until reaching the coast of the mediterranean and the red sea. the private sector during the first phase is playing a great role in the project, first phase, and the second phase also will depend on developing the suez kanell area. this provide so much

[ inaudible ] in a major project that will support this strategic situation of egypt as pint between the continent. another step of the national plan for cultivating land as started. also we have some other mega projects that will be very fruitful on the long term. modernization of roads network, modernization of airports blushments of new ports and touristic centers and industrial complexes and complexes for new -- renewable energy. the suez also will be tackled in this strategy. all of these projects open and pave the way for the participation of the public service in a way that sustains the improvements of relations between the public and the

private sectors, also to improve the mechanism of the free market. we also need to stress our commitment to the rights of the investors, and our commitment to give them necessary care of the laborers putting in mind the needs of the society as a whole. this will pave the way for a framework where all of the categories are playing a role. ladies and gentlemen, the achievement of the sustainable development will be very important and rely on the commitment, the full commitment of the egyptian government to go forward to apply the programs and policies in order to give them momentum to the investment wheel, and to open their promising market for investment.

and to restore the economic balance. it's also quite important not to apply all these plans away from the social justice, because we believe that egypt, the future will be there if the human resources development are also there. this will support and boost the social justice on the short-term we work on supporting systems of social protection in order to increase the effect of these economic reforms and on the long term, we concentrate on developing the human being through policies, through reforms, and through boosting the sources and resources. the procedures that are being done these days include reform

for the system of subsidy in order for the subsidy to go to those who are really in need of it, to work on the integration of women and youth in the efforts of development, and also the handicapped people have to play a role within this system. the pensioners also are there as a consideration, and we need to take care of the human development through committing ourselves to the constitutional demands, through increasing resources, through boosting the system of education, scientific research and health through ways of chiving the balance and sustainable development in this country. we rely a lot on the egyptian youth within our development plans because the egyptian youth is very competitive element in

the development of the country according to the statistics egypt's population under the age of 40 is more than the two-thirds of egyptian population. 30 million now are in the market ready to work. egypt is also developing means of social interaction, means of contact and communications through our youth. ladies and gentlemen, the adversity that is there within the egyptian economy guarantees interaction, and guarantees the offering all of the aspirations for the investors. let me here stress to all of our brothers friends, and partners to go on to support and

modernize the economic bases in egypt, and to make sure that there are frames that will guarantee the constructive cooperation between all parties for the sake of all parties. let me here call upon all of our partners and our companies who are looking for investment chances. i call upon the company i who are looks for real investment chances to come in and to know the privileges given them by the suitable investment needs. in order to build bridges with the financial sectors in egypt, and we need to make sure of the genius location of egypt.

it's a place that enjoys a tremendous, beautiful relations with countries in the region in the arab world, in africa the mediterranean. those partners and brothers have wonderful [ inaudible ] connections between them and -- and us. this is a matter that helps egypt to be a real window to the arab world, a real gate to africa, and the road towards europe. the path of egypt towards the future will continue and the acceleration of the steps will always be there, supported by the all mighty supported by the nation supported by the desire to go supported by the need to work to reach our goals and

ambitions ambitions. egypt is going towards the future. egypt is quite open to the world. egypt is welcoming the partners the investors who are seeking to make sure of the chances given to them by egypt in order to pave the way for better life for the egyptians, a productive life for the country, welfare in egypt, and welfare in the region. i like you all to follow me in expressing my thank and the gratitude to our brothers who worked with us in order to have such conference. particularly dr. [ inaudible ] finance minister in the kingdom of saudi arabia. [ applause ] >> translator: the minister of state in the united arab emirates.

[ applause ] >> translator: in addition to the egyptian team work. [ applause ] >> translator: allow me to express our thanks to the investors of shamshak and to express our thanks to our families in sinai, in south sinai. i have a lot of confidence in them -- >> egypt's president al-sisi there, kicking off the economic conference declaring egypt very much open for business. though managing director of the

imf is also there as a u.s. secretary of state john kerry. he will be speaking in around 30 minutes, 35 minutes. we'll be taking that speech live here on al jazeera, but he is expected to welcome recent economic reforms by egypt's al-sisi government. but press for more progress. the summit is hoped to attract billions of dollars of foreign investment. but there has been a mixed reaction from the egyptian people. >> translator: i think the conference will be very successful. it's the first real chance for egypt to attract investments and investors to the country. >> translator: the conference is a great move for the sake of the country. >> translator: there is no money. there is nothing. people are living their life for nothing. there's no production. money has been stolen and the people are poor. a protest against the economic summit has been held in

cairo. demonstrators carry placards saying egypt is not for sale. they call on the army to release political detainees, and state out of their life. fighters have been attacking [ inaudible ] in the run upto the summit. on sunday a bomb went off at a barclay's bank in alexandria. an anti government group claimed responsibility. let's get some analysis on this now. joining us is a processor in modern and contemporary history at the middle east university. welcome once again. what is at take here? >> two main points.