The first
paper entitled “Access to Services and Its Impact on
Competitiveness of Egyptian Firms”, by Ahmed Farouk Ghoneim,
which attempted to answer two major questions. The first is
related to the relative importance of services in determining
the competitiveness of firms and the second is concerned with
identifying the ranking of different services in terms of
hindering the competitiveness of firms.
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The
second paper on “Competitiveness of the textiles and
garments industry” prepared by Hala Sakr deals with the
importance and competitiveness of the textiles and garments
industry and seeks to identify the investment obstacles facing
this sector.
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The
third paper on “Infrastructure and Investment” by Adla Ragab,
provides in three sections an overview of the infrastructure in
Egypt its regulatory framework, while seeking to indicate the
impediments that face investment and decrease the opportunities
of its expansion.
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The
fourth paper on “Taxation and Improving Investment Climate
in Egypt” by Somaya Abdel Mawla presented an evaluation of the
impact of taxes on investment climate in Egypt, the paper
studies the variation of the burden of taxes among different
types of firms and analyzes the informal methods adopted by
different types of firms to lessen this burden.
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The fifth paper on
“Organizational Environment and Performance of the Business
Establishments in Egypt” by Saleh A. Ahmed. The paper focuses on
the analysis of the Egyptian business establishments in terms of
their internal environment (firm size and human resources
issues), and performance (total sales, net profit, and export
orientation) and analyzes the relationships between Egyptian
internal business environment and performance.
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The sixth paper on
“Investment Climate and Well-Being of Labor Force” by Heba El-Laithy
aims at presenting empirical evidence on the relationship
between the business sector and security and well-being of the
labor force and identifying the main factors affecting the
well-being of Egyptians.
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| The seventh working
paper; Using the results of the ICA survey and another survey
conducted by the SRC, supported by the UNDP/UNIFEM, the module
addressed the skills requirements of the labour market from a
gender perspective. A seventh working paper was prepared
analyzing the results of the survey. The report specified the
skills needed in a gender perspective and addresses the need of
continuous studies addressing the demand on labor force as most
available studies were on the supply side, while privatization
and globalization poses a measure challenge on the demand side
as well. The report reveals that four fifths of the
establishments do not undertake training, thus it recommends
more attention towards increasing the firms’ awareness of
importance of training to enhance their employees skills. In
this context, the report stresses on the need to enhance
technical training for females to upgrade their status of work,
as future work opportunities for females in 2005-2010
concentrate in the industrial sector as well as devoting more
attention to field surveys on skills needed in the different
sectors. |
