Egypt is progressing steadily in the global indicators in knowledge and technological development in recent years.
Much progress has been made towards localising technology industries and promoting scientific research in line with directives from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to build efficient human resources and give young entrepreneurs opportunities for innovation.
Upgrading infrastructure in various sectors and turning towards digitisation has made a positive impact on Egypt’s ranking on international indices.
The government has made tremendous efforts in knowledge development.
On the Global Knowledge Index, Egypt went up 19 places from last year to 53rd globally and first in Africa for pre-university education.
The index measures global knowledge as a comprehensive concept closely related to sustainable development and the various dimensions of contemporary human life.
The cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) recently announced that Egypt is among the top ten competitive countries in the Middle East and North Africa and 74th worldwide, according to the 2021 Coursera Global Skills Report, which bases it rankings on skills efficiency with future influence or skills in business, technology and data science in four country categories – most advanced, competitive, emerging and developing.
Egypt was in the competitive category in business and data science, ranking 47th and 49th respectively.
In technology, Egypt came 61st in among emerging states, and advanced 17 places for foreign direct investment, according to the Global Innovation Index.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s capital Cairo rose 96 spots to 208th on the Innovation Cities Index for 2021, the IDSC report said.
“Cairo came 208th in the Innovation Cities Index 2021 among 500 cities worldwide,” the IDSC report added.
“Alexandria, the second largest city in Egypt, occupied 272nd place in the same index. Tokyo, Boston and New York reserved the index’s top 3 places in the World’s Most Innovative Cities Rankings. The index measures the conditions for innovation through 162 standard indicators,” the report said.
The two Egyptian cities have topped the list for Africa.
Egypt is one of the most prominent e-commerce markets in the Middle East and North Africa.
The volume of the e-commerce sector in 2021 in the region is $30 billion, compared to $22 billion by the end of 2020.
Egypt is top in Africa for the number of equity deals for tech startups in 2020, according to a report titled ‘2020 Africa Tech Venture Capital’ issued by Partech Partners in February 2021.
Egypt saw a rise of 83 per cent with 86 equity deals, putting it in the top spot in Africa, followed by South Africa with 72 deals, and Nigeria with 71.
Egypt also ranked third in the total volume of deals with investments amounting to $269 million, after Nigeria and Kenya.
The 2020 Africa Tech Venture Capital report monitors the digital and technological venture capital equity deals that exceed $200,000 in African startups.
Meanwhile, major international institutions were full of praise for the solidity of the Egyptian economy in the face of coronavirus, an official report has said.
The World Bank (WB) forecast that Egypt would return to pre-pandemic growth rates.
The economy will rise from 3.3 per cent for fiscal year (FY) 2020-2021 to 5.5 per cent for FYs 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 and maintain good growth rates in the future, the report showed, quoting the WB, said.
Moody’s expects the Egyptian economy to recover in FY 2021-2022 with 5.5 per cent growth rate and the current account deficit of gross domestic product (GDP) would be 3.5 per cent, according to the report.
The Economist said Egypt did not suffer an economic downturn during the coronavirus pandemic, and it is expected that recovery will return to pre-pandemic levels with growth at 5.4 per cent in 2021/2022 and 5.7 per cent in 2023-2024.
The report mentioned expectations of a fall in inflation to 6.3 per cent in 2022, 5.7 per cent in 2023, and 5 per cent in 2024, while The Economist forecast a decline in the current account deficit as a percentage of GDP to reach 3.9 per cent in 2021/2022 and 2.9 per cent in 2023/2024.
The country jumped five places to 73rd out of 120 countries on the Inclusive Internet Index for 2021.
Egypt is still on the path towards technological development and digitisation, yet it ranked 4th in Africa, after South Africa, Morocco, and Kenya.
More than LE30 billion was invested in developing communications infrastructure during the past two years, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat said in recent remarks.
The step has contributed to the doubling of Internet speed in Egypt six times over January 2019.
The average fixed Internet speed in Egypt increased to reach 34.8Mbps last December, compared to 6.5Mbps in January 2019.
