In the late 1970s, President Anwar Sadat initiated neoliberal policies in Egypt. Following Sadat's assassination, in 1981, President Hosni Mubarak came to power and continued the economic liberalization of Egypt. Impact of neoliberal policies In 1991, these neoliberal reforms unfolded through the Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment Programme (ERSAP), a structural adjustment agreement signed between Mubarak, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. Under the ERSAP, the new, economic policies in Egypt intended to free the economy from government regulation and allow individuals and corporations to regulate the economy based on their self-interests and the free market. Privatization As a result of the limited government role, many public sector companies were privatized. By 2005, the government sold 209 out of a total of 314 public companies to the private sector with financial support from USAID. This privatization increased unemployment and decreased wages and benefits among workers in these public companies. Many of these Egyptians who lost their jobs resorted to informal work as street vendors or drivers in Cairo. Impact on agriculture Neoliberal reforms also affected the agricultural sector in Egypt. Before neoliberalism was implemented, the government protected small farmers from losing their land by giving these farmers and their families certain property rights to their plots of land. In the event of eviction, farmers had the right to be compensated for half of the land's value. In 1992, the Egyptian People's Assembly established a new, tenancy law for farmers called Law 96, which was financially supported by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and USAID. Law 96 liberalized agricultural rent by pricing agricultural products based on the market rather than on fixed agreements between landowners and farmers working the land. Law 96 increased land rent prices threefold and allowed landowners to evict farmers after a five-year transitional period. Consequently, government subsidies that supported farmers disappeared and high taxes were put on staple foods produced by local farmers. Farmers had to compete with a growing foreign, industry of agricultural businesses in Egypt, and most lost their livelihoods. Egyptian agriculture transitioned toward an export-oriented production in which entrepreneurs bought arable land from the Egyptian government at low costs. This export-led agriculture benefitted the wealthy in Egypt and foreign companies, while displacing farmers and making it difficult for the poor to buy food due to high food prices in the market. A short documentary, "Pity The Nation", in 2008 portrayed the