Human resources as vital component of tech localisation

IN more than one of the recent review meetings that President Sisi calls to follow up on the pace of action to implement the state’s strategies for the achievement of comprehensive and sustainable development, noticeable emphasis had been placed on the importance of expanding the localisation of technology for industrial growth purposes and the qualification of the human resources considered necessary for the technology localisation process to proceed efficiently. Mention may be made here to President Sisi’s March 20 meeting with Prime Minister Dr Moustafa Madbouli and Trade and Industry Minister Nevine Gamea when he called for government action to promote local industrial growth and the localisation of technology with a view to meeting the needs of the local market and bridging the gap between imports and exports. In the process of pursuing the state’s relevant strategy, the human resources component has featured highly in plans as well as in programmes.

Emphasis on this component has, therefore, evolved into a distinguishing characteristic of the state’s ongoing drive to localise modern technologies especially including those that serve the growth of industry. Underlying this attitude is the understanding that the ensuring the availability of human resources that can efficiently handle the wide array of tasks and jobs associated with industrial expertise transfer and technology localisation is as much essential to industrial development as the actual process of actual processes of technology transfer and localisation. Emphasis on the human resources factor serves multiple developmental purposes. As explained by Trade and Industry Minister Nevine Gamea during an expanded meeting she addressed at the Productivity Sufficiency and Vocational Training Authority last weekend, emphasis on human resources augments the implementation of the state’s plan for localising modern technology and helps create decent and sustainable job opportunities for young people.

Furthermore, such emphasis considerably contributes to raising the competitiveness of the country’s industrial production, thereby increasing the volume of exports and ultimately contributing to the achievement of comprehensive and sustainable development. Ensuring the availability of the desirable human resources relies mainly on the qualification of the large base of the workforce required to handle all tasks associated with or to ensue from the technology localisation processes. In practical terms, it means the offering of due and continuous training to human resources; hence the trade and Industry Ministry’s keenness on upgrading and modernising affiliate technical and vocational training centres. Action in this direction, as Minister Gamea noted during her recent visit to the Productivity and Vocational Training Authority, involves improving the quality of educational and training facilities, adopting quality assessment systems for the training centres and observing fine standards for the recruitment and choice of trainers and instructors for all the Trade and Industry Ministry’s 44 training centres. All such measures largely factor in achieving the ultimate goal of ensuring the sufficient availability of duly qualified workforce that is capable of handling modern technology methods and instruments.