16/09/2003
Al-Alam Alyom Newspaper 2003/SEPTEMBER/16
Egyptian industrialists and businessmen talk about the main obstacles to making Egyptian products internationally competitive. They single out the current economic downturn, the rising value of the dollar against the Egyptian pound, taxes, bureaucracy, sovereignty-related burdens, haphazard management, industrialists’ attitude not to update their equipment, and the government’s mistrust in businessmen when it lays down its economic and financial policies. (Available in Arabic – German in PDF )
Egyptian industrialists and businessmen talk about the main obstacles to making Egyptian products internationally competitive. One of them is the rising dollar against the Egyptian pound, which makes it necessary to increase the available foreign currency. Yet the main burden is taxes. These businessmen call on the government to eliminate or at least cut them, as they inevitably push up the prices of Egyptian products while affecting their quality. Other measures to be taken must target bureaucracy, sovereignty-related burdens, and haphazard management. Finally, two other problems are worth mentioning. The first is industrialists’ attitude not to update their equipment, and the other is the government’s not taking into account businessmen’s opinions when laying down its economic and financial policies.