December 24, 2008
Productivity and Competitiveness of the Egyptian Economy workshop
During this workshop, Dr. Ashraf El Araby, Expert at the Macro Policies Center in the Institute for National Planning, presented an overview of “Productivity and Competitiveness.” He examined Egypt’s current performance and major challenges facing the country’s productive capacity. He argued that improved workforce productivity is a crucial step in raising competitiveness. In addition to improving the quality of Egypt’s education system, this requires a significant increase of investments in employee training and capacity building. Engineer Hesham Wagdy Abdel Dayem, Director of Technical Assistance & National Programs at the Industrial Modernization Center presented “Productivity and the Manufacturing Process.” His remarks focused on the strengths and weaknesses of Egypt’s manufacturing sector where, despite recent technological advancement, human resources continue to be inadequate. Final comments and analysis were given by Professor Mohamed Fathy Sakr, Professor of Economics at Cairo University and Advisor to the Minister of Economic Development. It was concluded that several reforms within the education system, local industry and the regulatory framework need to take place before Egypt can reach its productive potential and that only a multifaceted, multi-stakeholder action plan can break the self-reinforcing cycle of low national productivity.
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