The Egyptian Junior Business Association unveiled its ambitious vision for Egypt in 2030, reports Mohamed El-Sayed The Egyptian Junior Business Association (EJB) held its annual conference last week under the auspices of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, bringing together a plethora of businessmen and politicians who debated the feasibility of EJB's vision of Egypt's future. The EJB, according to its chairman Khaled El-Mekati, has drawn up a roadmap that identifies problems as well as their solutions, and sets national and sectoral targets. In its vision, the EJB tackles the impediments facing different industry sectors, and offers appropriate solutions to stakeholders, government officials and regulatory authorities. The vision is based on three foundations: a democratic state ruled by law, a cohesive society that produces and exports knowledge and wealth, and a citizenry committed to fulfilling their duties and positively participating in formulating the country's future. The interaction and integration between these three factors should help achieve the vision's lofty goals in the fields of national economy, health, education, environment and culture. These goals will be achieved on the ground by the regular publication of a National Business Agenda for officials and ministers. Through this agenda -- which is formulated by parliamentarians, academics, policy-makers as well as members of the EJB -- the association aims at creating a world-class atmosphere conducive to the stable growth of business. "We aim at enhancing the capabilities of member businessmen of the association," said El-Mekati. "in addition to identifying business opportunities and opening new channels to connect members of the business community with the appropriate local and foreign organisations," he added. The National Business Agenda deals with almost every sector of the Egyptian economy. It covers construction and contracting, consultancy, energy, export promotion, food products, information and communications technology, industrial products, logistics, textiles, tourism, and finance and banking. The agenda aims at improving the competitiveness of the construction sector, which contributes 4.7 per cent of GDP, 8.3 per cent of employment and 48 per cent of total investment, by advising the relevant authorities to play an effective role in setting rules and mechanisms for this business. It also recommends the establishment of well-defined criteria of transparency and non-bias in choosing bidders to ensure fair competition. The agenda also states that tax reform should be introduced to help the sector stand on its feet again. In the energy sector, the vision calls for benefiting from the experiences of other countries and changing the policies and procedures that hinder the participation of investors in the small-scale production and distribution of energy. The food sector was also high on the agenda. The agenda states that, "the reintroduction of the clearance system that was applied before 1996" is pivotal for the industry. In addition, the "issuance of a unified law for food and the formation of an Egyptian food safety authority" and the "transfer of all authority over the current monitoring entities in the various ministries to the new authority" is of great importance. The information and communications technology (ICT) sector is at the heart of the ambitious agenda, which highlights the key challenges for this booming industry; namely, the inability of Egyptian ICT companies to access and develop business opportunities in foreign markets, and the need to develop new financial mechanisms for SMEs. "We have to establish an international business development entity as a hub for ICT companies." Finally, the logistics sector has to make containers available near export centres in order to speed up transport and reduce costs, and "establish transportation lines to connect the industrial zones with the cities and residential areas." The vision is very optimistic, but to what extent is it realistic? "One of the strengths of the EJB is its ability to follow through with its projects, proactively creating a better positive business environment," said El-Mekati. He highlighted the achievements of the EJB which "has witnessed a year of outstanding achievement in terms of corporate governance, one of the issues constantly addressed in the National Business Agenda since its first edition in 2004. We adopted a one-year awareness campaign in December 2006 on corporate governance for family businesses and engaging the private sector, and developed the first manual in Egypt and the Middle East to assist family businesses implement corporate governance."
