Over the past four years, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) have faced turbulent, unpredictable geopolitical events. These developments continue to challenge Egypt’s diplomatic prowess in resolving conflicts among neighboring countries, influencing negotiations over Nile water rights, and managing economic fallout. “This year marks 80 years since the founding of the United Nations, an organization created … to prevent war, uphold international law, and protect the rights and dignity of all people,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty told AmCham members in December. “Yet despite its founding goal, the international system faces fragmentation, polarization and major challenges.” In this shifting world order…
Author: Rania Hassan
According to the government’s latest statistics, Egypt’s economy is rapidly recovering. In the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2025/2026, GDP grew 5.3%, up from 3.5% a year earlier, “marking the strongest quarterly performance in over two years,” according to a November statement from the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation (MPED). It forecast that GDP growth would not fall below 5% by the end of the fiscal year. It said this “acceleration reflects the tangible impact of ongoing economic and structural reforms that are bolstering the real economy, crowding in private-sector activity and steering the growth model…
Over the past decade, the government’s priority has been to address Egypt’s trade deficit, which stood at $3.27 billion as of September, up from a decade low of $1.19 billion in November 2021. A narrower trade deficit implies less new debt to finance imports and lower foreign-currency outflows, leading to moderate exchange-rate movements versus the dollar. One way to achieve that goal is to increase exports. In 2024, Egypt’s non-oil exports grew nearly 25%. The largest buyers of Egyptian goods are the EU, United States, and Arab nations. However, the export growth rate could suffer in 2026. The October 2025…
The last quarter of 2023 was pivotal for global trade between Europe and Asia, as Yemen’s Houthi rebels began sinking and seizing freight ships entering the Red Sea through its southern strait in response to the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip. Those attacks had massive repercussions for Egypt’s foreign currency inflow. “Since the onset of attacks in late 2023, major carriers have rerouted hundreds of vessels to avoid the Red Sea, resulting in historically low Suez Canal volumes [one of Egypt’s top five sources of foreign currency at the time],” said Project44, a think tank, in August. “In 2024,…
As one of the world’s major tourist destinations, Egypt targets holiday and business travelers with nearly 3,000 kilometers of shoreline along the Red Sea and Mediterranean, deserts, ancient historical sites and museums, and near-endless entertainment options. However, one tourism draw remains underutilized: foreign visitors eager to experience authentic cuisines reflecting the destination’s history (gastronomic tourism). “Egypt stands at a pivotal moment to showcase its distinctive flavors and culinary traditions,” Sarah Samir, a reporter for Arab Finance, a regional publication, wrote in July. “Its rich and diverse culinary heritage, influenced by Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and African cultures, is uniquely positioned to…
Volatile geopolitics, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, environmental changes, and unpredictable political decisions are transforming the global business landscape. According to Andras Vicsek, Chief Innovation Officer at Maven7, utilizing Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) tools can help local businesses benefit from adopting a data-driven approach to build healthier, more agile workplaces. The interview was edited for length and clarity. What are ONA tools? ONA is a data-driven tool that maps companies’ formal and informal relationships. Unlike traditional organizational charts that show reporting lines, ONA reveals how people actually connect, collaborate, and influence each other. That includes who they go to…
Businesses can’t survive, let alone thrive, without their workforces. Accordingly, how managers handle employees is essential to the company’s future. “A company’s employees are its greatest asset, and your people are your product,” said Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group. Accordingly, HR professionals need to look out for key drivers of change, such as artificial intelligence (AI). At this year’s AmCham Egypt HR Conference, speakers agreed: The human resource function is at an inflection point. Nuance imperative Keynote speaker Skip Bowman, author of the book “Safe To Great: The New Psychology of Leadership,” stressed that HR’s best-practice…
Egypt has been heavily investing in digitizing its economy and accompanying infrastructure since 2016 with the launch of Egypt Vision 2030. Since then, projects have included digitizing government services and citizen interactions, promoting digital payments via applications like the Central Bank’s Instapay, offering training and upskilling courses, and promoting innovation via incubator programs and regulatory sandboxes. Government data shows that between 2022 and 2024, the number of internet users in Egypt increased by 6.3 million, bringing the total to more than 82 million. According to data aggregator Statista, that means almost all Egyptian citizens aged 10 or above have internet…
The world has been on a commodity price roller-coaster ride since the end of 2019, when it became clear COVID-19 would require countries to shut down their economies and borders to contain the virus. “Since [the] pandemic, sharp swings in commodity prices have driven volatility to record highs,” the World Bank said in an April report. Fueling this uncertainty are ongoing wars in Ukraine since 2022 and the Gaza Strip since 2023 and U.S. President Donald Trump’s unpredictable policies. Those events “raise the question of whether these recent movements represent relevant changes in commodity price cycles or remain broadly within…
A key attraction for entrepreneurs and startups is solid intellectual property rights protection (IPR) laws. It “is immensely important for entrepreneurs as it provides legal protection for their innovations and creative works, offering a competitive advantage in the market and safeguarding valuable assets for small business ventures,” James Dooley, a U.K.-based entrepreneur who founded four startups, wrote on Linkedin in January 2024. IPR laws traditionally protect the ideas behind real-world products, company logos, marketing material and other assets. However, the proliferation of the virtual landscape (metaverse) is sparking new types of innovations that are testing the limits of traditional IPR…