What is "infitah"

n. Egypt's policy, after the 1973 war, of encouraging the private sector and stimulating foreign investment

The Infitah ( , "openness") was Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's policy of "opening the door" to private investment in Egypt in the years following the 1973 October War ( Yom Kippur War) with Israel. Infitah was accompanied by a break with longtime ally and aid-giver the USSR — which was replaced by the United States — and by a peace process with Israel symbolized by Sadat's dramatic flight to Jerusalem in 1977. Infitah ended the domination of Egypt's economy by the public sector and encouraged both domestic and foreign investment in the private sector. The Egyptian Army's cross through the Suez canal in the October 1973/ Yom Kippur War, which most Egyptians considered a strategic victory, gave Sadat the prestige to initiate a major reversal of Gamal Abdel Nasser's policies.