This Business Briefing will focus on two key sectors earmarked by the Egyptian government for development: Education/Training and ICT. It follows ‘Opportunity Egypt’, a trade and investment conference held in November last year and will lay the ground for delegates wishing to join the Education & Training/ICT Trade Mission to Egypt in March 2010.

Egypt’s economy proved relatively resilient to the global economic downturn, maintaining positive growth throughout. It is the UK’s third biggest market in the MENA region, with UK exports totaling £466,211,436 in the period January-June 2009, an increase of 19% on the same period in 2008.

The Egyptian government is investing heavily in education and there are many opportunities for UK companies to form partnerships across the sector including in higher education, English language training, leadership skills & development and vocational training. Egypt’s ICT sector has been growing at a rate of 20% a year and offers significant potential for software developers, hardware suppliers and those involved in IT service delivery and training.

Speakers:

- Mr Mohamed Abu Bakr Fattah, Counsellor, Egyptian Embassy

- Dr Moustafa Ghanem, Senior Research Fellow, Imperial College, London (ICT)

- Professor Ronald McCaffer, Adviser to the British University in Egypt (Education)

- Mr Neil Shaw, Vocational Education & Training Adviser, Near East & North Africa, British Council (Training)