Egypt has dropped six places in 2014 Global Services Location Index (GSLI) of consultancy firm A.T. Kearney to rank 10th, a result of the political turmoil that has caused an uncertain environment for investors, the report stated. The GSLI report, which provides a comprehensive platform for business leaders and policymaker, analyses and ranks the top 50 countries worldwide as the best destinations for providing outsourcing activities including IT services. The report citied Egypt as one of the several countries across the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) that is "well-positioned" to play a greater role in service delivery, particularly to Europe. "Egypt, the region's industry leader, has scored well over the years thanks to solid fundamentals including favourable costs, good universities, and proximity to Europe," the report said. However, the report stressed that once the country's political situation stabilises, they expect Egypt to return as one of the leading locations for IT services. US-headquartered A.T. Kearney describes itself as a leading global management consulting firm with offices in more than 40 countries. With regard to the communication and information technology sector in Egypt, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology said in a recent report that the sector is on track to nearly double its growth rate in the next six years. It is boosting expansion from 10% in fiscal year (FY) 2013/2014 to 17% in FY 2019/2020. During this time period, the broadband penetration in Egyptian households is expected to rise from 13% to 50%, the ministry noted. It added that information and communication technology service exports are expected to surge from EGP 11bn. The ministry predicted GDP from the information technology sector will grow from the current EGP 60bn to EGP 150bn.
