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Networks for Prosperity PART 2, Chapter 5: The Knowledge Organization
Egyptian businesses are quite sophisticated and able to adopt technology. So what is preventing further industrial innovation?
There are now over a dozen Technology Centers, located in eight cities across Egypt. Most are focused on sectors such as Fashion and Design; Marble and Quarries; Plastic; Food; Leather & Tanning; Furniture; Jewellery; Textiles & Clothing; Engineering; and Agriculture & Agro-industries. Other TICs are cross-cutting (Egypt National Cleaner Production Centre; Productivity and Quality Improvement; Packaging; Technology). Donors including UNIDO have been actively engaged. Each TIC has traditionally worked with a European or Japanese partner to provide training, testing, technology transfer agreements and other services. In 2007/08, some 7,350 trainees and 2,300 companies benefited from the services, with nearly 200 technology transfer agreements.cxx Inevitably, some TICs were achieving more than others. Opportunities may also have been missed due to informal governance and the scattered TIC network.
Egypt can learn from successful models of applied research, such as at Stanford; the Fraunhofer Institute; and Italy’s experience with SME export consortia. The Council can also learn more from the small group of ‘early adopters’ in Egypt itself.
In 2010, a new Industry Council for Technology & Innovation was tasked by the Ministry of Industry with rejuvenating the work of the TICs. The key task is not to initiate further research but to make better connections, notably with universities and NGOs. One example of acting as a catalyst for existing know-how is work with experts at the American University Cairo on technology for recycling marble waste at the Shaq Al-Thu`ban marble cluster.cxxi The Industry Council also recognizes the need to upgrade or consolidate some TICs, as well as to form new teams to focus on emerging opportunities, such as medicinal plants, technical fibres or pharmaceuticals.
Sources: Interview with Ahmed Samy, Chairman, Industry Council for Technology & Innovation.
To do this, the TICs need to continuously refocus on innovation from the perspective of the entrepreneur. Evans & Rauch (1999) stress the importance of private sector experience for effective civil servants. The Industry Council’s Chairman Ahmed Samy has a private-sector background, in EDS and then HewlettPackard. In Egypt, there is a need to encourage this trend of cross-sector experience. An induction programme for senior executives moving from private sector to public sector would improve the ability of appointees to hit the ground running and navigate their way through complex and unfamiliar procedures.
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