Management En Egypte

How to do Business in Egypt?

Table of contents

I- Introduction to Egyptian culture 2

1 – Key numbers and information 2

2 – Historical background 2

3 – Infrastructures 3

4 – The Egyptian health system 3

5 – Education 5

II – Business Practices 6

1 – Business attire 6

2 – Presentations and negotiations tactics 6

3 – Dinner conventions 7

I- Introduction to Egyptian culture

1 – Key numbers and information

Egypt has a surface of 1001450 km² for a total of 81121077 inhabitants. With a demographic growth of 1,7 % now, we estimate that its total population should be composed of 127407000 inhabitants in 2050.

31 % of the population has less than 15 years old and schooling rate reaches 94% which is a real hope when you know that only 66,4 % of inhabitants know how to read.

While life Esperance is getting better (70 % today vs 48 in 1950), child mortality is still important with 19 children of less than 1 year dying every 1000 births.

The HDI (0,682) is ranked 110 on 187 today and is classified as low by United Nations but it is raising.

Moreover principal languages in Egypt are Egyptian spoken Arabic and standard Arabic but due to the ethnic populations, Berber and Bedoin languages are used too in some areas.

The main religion is Muslim and represents about 94 % of the religious population while Coptic Christian and other are only 6 %. We will see that this point has a huge impact on culture and also in doing business in Egypt.

2 – Historical background

In 1914, Egypt accepts to be under English protectorate after their occupation since 1882.

In 1922, Egypt became an independent country but in the facts, English occupation will not end before 1956.

This historical period apart from its abuses has been beneficial to Egypt which had a worned out economy before.

Since 1954, Nasser has led a nationalization politic including the Suez Canal and many companies. However since the 1980s, businesses have become more independent.

The January 25th revolution in 2011 initiated a major political and social transition for Egypt.

It caused troubles in retail, trade, banking and tourism. Furthermore it revealed a lack of governance and trust.

3 – Infrastructures

Since Nasser has been in power, Egypt has significantly increased the modernity of its infrastructures.

However, in the past 15 years, investments in infrastructures declined which is opposed to the goals of raising economic growth in this country. This is due to the decline of public spending even if private funds are in growth, they don’t counterbalance it.

Transport in Egypt is mainly centered in Cairo and along the Nile. Roads badly maintained expanded rapidly to 21000 miles but only 78% are paved. Furthermore most traffic lights appear not to function and traffic rules are not respected. It results that Egypt has one of the highest incidence of road facilities per miles driven in the world with 6000 deaths per year and almost 30000 people hurt.

Moreover EgyptAir provides an air transportation service to most tourist destinations from Cairo airport.

About waterways, the Nile and its canals are important for local transportation in addition with the Suez Canal, a major waterway of international commerce.

4 – The Egyptian health system

Egypt spent 4,75% of the country’s GDP on healthcare for the fiscal year 2007/2008, it is namely 62,6 € per capita. With a total life expectancy of 72,3 years in 2008 and an infant mortality rate of 19 for 1000 births.

By the way it is clear that there is a lack of equality between Egyptians regarding access to care and quality of services.

These charts reflect what the Egyptian Health system really is:

STAT AMOUNT DATE RANK

Accuracy and completeness in filling out reports 54.17 2014 37th out of 46

Convenient location 67.11 2014 38th out of 46

Cost 69.74 2014 16th out of 46

Friendliness and courtesy of staff 56.58 2014 33th out of 46

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