In a groundbreaking event in Cairo on May 29 & 30, the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI) spelled out fifteen areas of growing concern to Egypt's private sector and announced their positions on a number of issues related to these areas. (See inset box below.) The "Business Agenda 2000" conference, in the planning stages for nearly a year, drew reform-minded Ministers from the Government of Egypt and more than 600 representatives of the Egyptian business community, the U.S.-Egypt President's Council, media, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
CIPE, working closely with FEI, played an instrumental role in conceptualizing, providing organizational support, and funding this first-of-its-kind event. Dialogue at the conference between government officials and business leaders was frank and constructive, an important step forward in coming to grips with Egypt's suffocating bureaucracy and commercial malaise. Egypt has made solid progress in encouraging economic reform and privatization in the 1990s, but more work remains to be done.
The conference was divided into eight sessions. Each of these was presided over by a government Minister and a top representative of Egypt's burgeoning private sector. Following the opening session, the others segments included:
H.E. Soleiman Reda delivered the keynote address in the name of H.E. Kamal El-Ganzouri, Egypt's Prime Minister. H.E. Amr Mousa, Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs, delivered a luncheon address. CIPE was represented by its Chief of Party in Cairo, Stephen Klaus, and other Cairo office directors.
In their opening remarks, Dr. Abdel Moneim Seoudi and Mr. Ahmed Ezz, Chairman and Deputy Chairman of FEI, respectively, hailed the conference as a breakthrough.
CIPE has been working with FEI since 1995.