Foreword
The current global economic and political setting is turbulent, complex and fast-changing. Governments, businesses and societies are engaged in better understanding the ongoing technological, digital and industrial reorganisation processes and their profound potential impacts on the economy and the society. At a time in which it is clear that growth is a necessary, but not exclusive, condition for development and that incentives are needed to guarantee that growth is inclusive and sustainable, planning and implementing strategies for economic transformation become paramount. This is even truer in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic that has exposed the vulnerabilities of the global economic system.
The Production Transformation Policy Reviews (PTPRs) are an OECD policy assessment and guidance tool that supports policy makers in the creation and implementation of better strategies for transforming their economies. They benefit from international peer dialogue and discussions under the aegis of the OECD Initiative for Policy Dialogue on Global Value Chains, Production Transformation and Development. The PTPRs are enriching the OECD Development Pathways Series with their perspective on economic transformation and governance for change.
The PTPR of Egypt is the first PTPR carried out in Africa, at the request of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and was implemented in co-operation with the Industrial Modernisation Centre (IMC), and with the financial contribution of German International Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ). The PTPR benefited from co-operation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The African Import Export Bank (Afreximbank) contributed to the process.
The PTPR of Egypt involved an extensive process of consultation with multiple stakeholders and benefited from peer learning from Italy (International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies, CIHEAM) and Malaysia (Mara Corporation). The PTPR of Egypt has been a process of dialogue and knowledge sharing and provided an opportunity to identify future reforms to enable the country to flourish in a post-pandemic future. The PTPR benefited from global peer learning through three Peer Learning Group (PLG) meetings conducted online during 2020, which gathered more than 127 international high-level participants from government, academia and the private sector.
Egypt is one of Africa’s industrial heavyweights. Transforming the country's economy to sustain job-rich and sustainable growth are pivotal steps in its march towards prosperity. Today’s search for new development models, accelerated by the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for shifting up a gear in raising Egypt’s industrial capabilities to compete in an Industry 4.0 and Agro 4.0 landscape.
The PTPR of Egypt uses a forward-looking framework to assess the country's readiness to embrace change. This includes an analysis of the game-changing potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and perspectives on agro-food and electronics (i.e. what in Egypt is referred to as part of the engineering sector), as well as identifying priorities for future reforms.