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This is a special edition of READeR for today's congressional elections based on questions and answers for congress candidates in eEgypt. I usually don't publish interviews with myself, but I'd like you to read the original article with Candidate Comparison for eEgyptian congress in March/April 2011.

So, wherever you read this, don't forget to vote today, it used to bring some experience points, please check your experience points before and after the voting, and let me know is this still so.

ReconWarHawk: I am preparing an article to be released summarizing all the candidates for congress. Please go to Elections - Independent Information Service and fill out the questions so I can accurately compare you to other candidates, it is for the benefit of voters. Also it would be nice if you could vote the article up to increase awareness.

Janko Fran: Hello, ReconWarHawk!
I greet such actions as informing voters and questioning congressman candidates, because it is right for people to be well informed and we need more journalists who will keep our people of eEgypt well informed. I have done similar action at the end of first congress term rating our congressmen (http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/congressional-ratings-see-the-score-on-your-congressmen-1690774/1/20). I invite you to do the same also at the end of this term and improve it. It could help both to our people and our future congressmen to become better in doing their duty.

ReconWarHawk: What are your previous qualifications?
Janko Fran: I am playing eRepublik continuously for 17 months and have been keeping track of all the changes in game mechanics and rules to know this game well and notice how different decisions in game influence players, country strength and economy. During this period I have been active mostly as journalist, covering different topics, mostly battlefields reports, foreign affairs and game mechanics, but also economy, strategy and statistics as well as taking interviews with some popular and interesting people. So I had enough time to get to know relationships and mentalities of different nations, their priorities and long term allies.

I have been working in Ministry of Information of eCroatia when I was called to continue my work on informing public, this time in eEgypt, as Minister of Information of eEgypt. I have been serving for a month as Minister of Information and also as advisor of president heboo. At the end of this term I was asked by president heboo to stay for another term on both duties, which I accepted. These will end on 5th of April with the end of current presidency term.

During the last congress term eEgypt had a lack of congress candidates (25/40). Since I was not planning to run for the congress, I was not aware of that until the deadline already passed. This time I am going to make sure this doesn't happen. This had cost eEgypt and its economy of 75 gold which could be perhaps better used if donated to National Bank of Egypt. Donating 5 gold from congress medal is a custom in eCroatia and I am going to encourage this in eEgypt, by donating 5 gold from my congress medal to National Bank of Egypt if I get elected.

In the meantime my party in eCroatia (Team for better eCroatia) was PTOed a few days ago by several votes and it changed its president and also its name, to Dinamo Zagreb. Although I am a fan of Dinamo Zagreb football club, and the new name sounds good, I am not familiar with new program of the party. In any case, it is more interesting now with this PTO, and it should wake up our regular members to be more active and fight for our party or to let other people run the party under new name.

Since I got attached to eEgypt in last couple of months and considering that I can't help my PTOed party in eCroatia for the period of next 30 days, I estimated I could be more useful here in eEgypt, so I decided to leave that party until it gets back to the track and joined Arab Liberal Party (EGY).

ReconWarHawk: What is your view on the recent wars and how much land do you think eEgypt is entitled to?

Janko Fran: At first I hoped that eMiddle East would be more peaceful region than the real one. But as soon as it was allowed, the chain of wars started. Actually it is a game based on war and strategy and if there is no war, economy and players strength don't develop as quickly as they could develop in times of war, so as it seems, individually almost all benefit from war.

Anyway, in-game wars are better than the real ones, because no one dies or gets hurt here. Only some players' egos might get hurt in eRepublik.
eEgypt's foreign policy is based on good relationship with its neighbors which I find as really good policy and I support it.

eSaudi Arabia (eKSA) declared eUAE as their Natural Enemy as soon as it was allowed. The strange thing is that eKSA did it without any Mutual Protection Pacts (MPPs) while in the same time eUAE had 3 very strong MPPs with eSerbia, eRussia and ePoland. I can explain this only by strong desire of eKSA leadership for eKSA being deleted from the map in hope that this would attract many patriotic RL Saudi Arabians who would join eRepublik and liberate eKSA afterwards. There were many such examples in eRepublik history and some of the greatest powers of eRepublik have been built on this effect: eSerbia, ePoland, eUSA, eRepublic of Macedonia (FYROM), eBulgaria to name few of them. Since eEgypt was not included from the beginning in eKSA plans and there was not enough time to prepare the attack in time, we couldn't engage in such attack. eEgypt had only eCroatian MPP and eIsraeli one, so interfering with eIsraeli plans could only deteriorate our relationship with eIsrael and get us involved in direct conflict with eUAE which would be dangerous. So eEgypt had offered to protect Al Madinah and Makkah instead as well to pursue with swapping region plan (grain for fruits) as agreed earlier with eKSA leadership. This plan was accepted by eKSA leadership.

eEgypt was not in good tactical position at first, since it joined war in eMiddle East the last, but as eKSA war against eUAE went wrong (as it could be expected), and when eIsrael had some delays in attacks caused by some game bugs, eEgyptian tactical situation suddenly became the best one, thanks to good timing and successful attacks, as well as good effort of all fighters on our side.

At that time I talked to eIsraeli president Rheinlander von Phalz and together we came with a proposal for peace in the eMiddle East until eKSA gets baby boom:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h1cjPVjjHg8dMfUSiYZouG5r8qErT4GLYJouMLa01tw/edit?authkey=CI2whrMI&hl=en#
And here is the map of how eMiddle East could have looked like if everything went well:



This would include fair as possible deal for all parties involved.
President heboo didn't insist on Tabuk region and was willing to let it to eUAE. Also Al Bahah region was not necessary to eEgypt and we were willing to let it to eKSA as a base for later expansion after baby boom.

Unfortuantelly, as it seems to me, eUAE became greedy and started threatening to eEgypt directly, and to eIsrael indirectly, demanding that eEgypt stops conquering eKSA territories after Al Qasim attack or eUAE will attack us, wanting more territories for eUAE. We suspected that eUAE was very interested in eEgypt's high iron region of Upper Egypt.

Thus, we started negotiations with EDEN members trying to strengthen our MPP relations. We negotiated with eRomania, eBulgaria and eGreece on MPPs and military help from EDEN HQ in case of war with eUAE. I got confirmation from eRomanian president for our MPP with eRomania. Unfortunately, it was not accepted in eRomanian congress. Actually, it seems that we proposed the law a bit early and that eRomanian president and MoFAs didn't have enough time to present this plan to their congress. So we agreed to postpone it.

We also had negotiations with eGreece, whose leadership promised to help us in case of war with eUAE. There was a plan for eGreece to enter Arabian Peninsula through Sinai and to occupy eKSA territories which were either occupied by eUAE or on their most probable path (Tabuk, Ha'il, Northern Borders, Eastern Province). According to the plan, eGreece should drive out eUAE from eKSA, eGreece should settle in Eastern Province and block eUAE from further expansion to the eMiddle East. eGreece should guarantee safety to eMiddle East region. eGreece should also rent Oil region (Asir) from eKSA and let the other regions to eKSA.

The plan was complicated by the fact that eGreece and eEgypt both had MPP with eCroatia, so it would be better to avoid direct conflict. Therefore we proposed eKSA to make a bridge for eGreece through Tabuk and Sinai and for eKSA to be evacuated to Lower Egypt as a part of Grain - Fruits swap (Lower Egypt for Al Qasim).

It was a coincidence that these negotiations were held on 8th of March. President heboo insisted that eGreece pays 100 gold for passing eGreece through Sinai, but president of eGreece wouldn't agree to that. So heboo left the negotiations.

Unfortunately, Lawrence of Arabia didn't accept that deal soon enough. And eGreece decided to make the bridge through Sinai with eCyprus and they notified one of our MoDs. At one moment, we had both bridge plans in execution, however, there was lack of good communication and coordination with eKSA, so eEgypt didn't manage to take Tabuk and eCyprus already took Sinai, so our relations with eKSA got to deteriorate. Lawrence of Arabia started to think eEgypt has betrayed them and started to ask for rent from eEgypt for Al Qasim, although it was agreed that eEgypt will keep it for a month for free for offering help to eKSA. Leadership of eKSA got things out of control and were losing territories daily and their nerves too... So they chose to get this war against eEgypt seriously, trying to liberate Al Qasim anyway, as they thought they have best chances to win battles against eEgypt. However, we managed to secure the region. We regretted such development of events with eKSA, but were hoping eKSA will get a new, Arab president, as presidential elections were nearing, and that we could have better communication with next president of eKSA. So we have decided to maintain control over currently held eKSA core regions because we were suspecting in eKSA power to keep them in war against eIsrael and eUAE.

In the meantime, some eKSA core regions changed the owners and eCyprus (eGreece) chose to change the path and instead of going for Tabuk, Ha'il and Northern Borders, they went for Red Sea Coast and Al Madinah, neutralizing some of our efforts in war. However, time was critical and we couldn't change that. eGreece promised to return our territories back, including Al Madinah as well when they settle in Eastern Province.

Unfortunately, Admin's decision on trade routes complicates this further and now we are trying to find another acceptable solution.

With some problems keeping occupied Turkish regions and some eIranian and eUAE pressure, eGreece generally agreed even on such a devision of eKSA, under condition that eUAE or Iran don't attack eEgypt or eIsrael:



The plans are changing almost every day and of course, the strongest country in the region (this time eGreece) dictates how will political e-map of eMiddle East look in reality so this is how it looks today (Day 1213):



All in all, it is difficult to control such complex battlefield with many simultaneous battles, especially since we are a new country with limited military power, because good communication and coordination are critical, and there are also some unpredictable factors to be included, such as Battle Hero hunters, and Rebel War starters, then new regions of our allies (like when eCroatia won Vojvodina last week and we got some Serbian fighters fighting for eEgypt when we should have lost a battle in order to get to a certain tactical point), and rule changes.

Besides its core regions, eEgypt should at least try to get Al Madinah and Al Qasim in order to have grain, and oil is a plus and necessary with this trade route rule. The alternative would be to get Tabuk and Ha'il. I am for negotiations and swapping or renting these regions from eKSA, because trying to keep it by force is counterproductive for our relationships with our neighbors and unnecessarily expensive.

The native people in these regions should also have a choice to stay in their region or to move to their native country. Occupying country should also grant them some basic rights; at least a Welcome message and tutorials in their native language and free ticket if they choose to leave their region and go to their homeland country.

ReconWarHawk: Immigration has become a concern as of late, what is your view and/or plan to deal with the immigration?

Immigration is not dangerous for eEgypt since there are no more automatic citizenship grants. And number of Citizenship grants by our congressmen is very limited (only 1 CS per congressman and only 40 congressmen in total, and in last congress term eEgypt had only 25 congressmen, so we had to turn down many requests from people wishing to settle in eEgypt). Of course, congressmen should be careful when granting a CS in order not to let people who have harmful intentions toward eEgypt. That is why people should choose their congressmen wisely on congressional elections and to give trust to congress candidates for who they are certain that won't misuse their trust.

Eccept that, immigration could be only beneficial to eEgypt. If they work here they will bring more profit to their employers, they will produce more products, ensuring moderate or lower prices for people of eEgypt. If they fight here, eEgypt will have more military power. And citizens of eEgypt should invite their friends to eRepublik to ensure that Egyptians are always here to correct things when things might get separate ways with interests of Egyptian people.

ReconWarHawk: What is your general economic view?

Janko Fran: I think that eEgypt, with 80 million people and over 15 % internet penetration, has great potential in e-economy and eRepublik in general, even when compared to some eRepublik powers like eSerbia, eHungary, eCroatia, eBulgaria, or eRepublic of Macedonia (FYROM). People in Egypt want more freedom and democracy and eRepublik as a social game is a good way to practice it for the real life.

People of eEgypt now are in a good position to become leaders, both in e-economy and politics of eEgypt, compared to players who will join later in the game. With current game rules every player could become independent in 2-3 month period. He'd need 2 companies: first grain and then food to ensure 5-7 attacks free attacks each day. If he is employed in some company, he'd have 2-3 more attacks at least. But it would be wise for him to save his money for a company and build his strength first, and to leave attacking for the later stage in the game.

Of course, eEgypt government should help their players in achieving their independence (of food) and should offer continuous business loans up to 50 % of investment in order to encourage responsible relations and savings. We should also encourage investing in iron industry as it is our core resource and weapons companies tend to absorb large quantities of iron. Of course, we should encourage investing in more q5 weapons companies in order to have adequate supplies for times of war. I have proposed a plan for ambitious players who would like to buy some new land, which would be beneficial both for players and for eEgypt, and which would include spending money in eEgypt rather than traveling half an eworld to get affordable land.

Janko Fran: Paying taxes is based on trust between people and the government. Taxes should enable country to secure needs of their people. Military security, good living standard for people, investment opportunities, social wealth-fare, war funds or rents for securing missing resources and so on. The main point is how the government spends money from taxes and if they let to their people know how they spend it. If government spends it well, then people will be happy to pay taxes (if they are not too high) and will have trust to their government, and may even be willing to donate some more money when needed for a good cause. If government steals from its people or is not showing clearly how they spend tax money, then people won't trust to their government and will look for every opportunity to avoid taxes.

ReconWarHawk: Your view on income tax.
Janko Fran: Income tax - not higher than 10 %. Lower if possible (if it secures adequate needs of the state in providing everything their people need).

ReconWarHawk: Your view on VAT.
Janko Fran: Low VAT on food, higher VAT on weapons, because food is basic need and weapons is luxury.
Ideally, 0 % VAT on food, and 10 % VAT on weapons.

ReconWarHawk: Your view on import tax.
Janko Fran: Import taxes should be moderate (up to 25 😵 in order to secure adequate supplies in times of large consumption (war time), to protect domestic production, but not to let it be arrogant and having high prices for our people. Lower import taxes on products which we lack of. And in the same time investing in domestic production in these sectors if useful or possible.

ReconWarHawk: What do you believe the focus of eEgypt's policies should be on?
Janko Fran: Attracting more Egyptian players. Otherwise, eEgypt could become only a toy in great eRepublik powers' hands.

ReconWarHawk: Do you believe eEgypt should join a major alliance, create their own regional alliance system, or remain neutral.
Janko Fran: I prefer EDEN, since its countries showed loyalty and offered protection to new countries.

ReconWarHawk: Which country do you believe is eEgypts main rival?
Janko Fran: eUAE presents risk while PTOed. With other neighboring countries we mainly have good relations and are trying to maintain them. Turkey could become a threat if eGreece weakens.

ReconWarHawk: To all candidates, the article has been assembled! Candidate Comparison, and if you dont mind voting up again that'd be grand.

If you are interested to see my full congress candidacy presentation, please visit:
Janko Fran - candidate of Arab Liberal Party (EGY) March/April 2011