(From Thursday, April 14, 2011 to Thursday, April 14, 2011)
The overall performance of the Egyptian economy and its ability to mobilize investment and attract foreign direct investment are highly dependent on the country’s competitiveness. In that respect, the 2010-2011 Global Competitiveness Report benchmarks Egypt to other countries in the same stage of development and other countries that are more developed, pinpointing both strengths and weaknesses of the economy. Over the last few years, Egypt’s competitiveness indicators exhibited weak signals in areas such as macroeconomic stability, education quality, efficiency of labor market and capacity for innovation. However, the Egyptian economy continues to have a clear competitive advantage in market size and infrastructure. Specifically, this roundtable discussion attempted to:

1. assess Egypt’s progress so far and identify specific areas where the country has lagged behind relative to comparators;
2. highlight the structural and policy deficiencies that have negatively impacted Egypt’s competitiveness; and
3. present specific policy recommendations addressing shortcomings and leading to greater competitiveness.