Egypt has deteriorated in the 2014/2015 Global Competitiveness Report, landing in 119th position out of 144 countries. This is the fifth consecutive deterioration for the country in the World Economic Forum's yearly report, with the country coming in 118th position out of 148 countries last year. "This continues deterioration is due to the exceptional circumstances that Egypt experienced through the past few years," said the director of research at the Egyptian Centre for Economic Studies (ECES), Omnia Helmy. "A significant decline can be noticed in terms of innovation, institutions and the macroeconomic environment," she said. Helmy added: "That deterioration has overshadowed some improvements in the efficiency enhancers such technologies readiness." Investor's protection, quality of infrastructure, training and access to loans were all among the main pillars which noticed a year-on-year drop. The improvements, however, were in the irregular payments and bribes, along with the cooperation in the labour-employer relations. Egypt is still behind in terms of research and development, Helmy noted. Comparing with the average performance of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Helmy highlighted that several countries were able to surpass Egypt. The UAE ranked 12th, while Jordan came in at 64. The ECES economist said that comparing with those two countries, Egypt is still capable of improving its performance. "If Egypt improves its basic requirements pillar such as Jordan, it'll be able climb from the 119th position to reach the 90th," Helmy said. "If we improve our basic requirements pillar such as that of the UAE, we can place the 34th". Ameliorating market efficiency such as the Jordan or the UAE, Egypt can improve its position to 96 or 48, respectively.
