Maybe. Except the report card is based on evidence from within these countries about how hard it is to make a buck and to get things done. Its also a list of reasons why many don't want to risk their money, skills and technology in Egypt.Al Ahram runs a blithe story that Egypt has improved its place in the world to 115th out of 138 from last years 116th in the world out of 140. Only al Ahram could see the removal of two basket cases from the list as a sign of Egyptian improvement
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/17490/1 ... eness.aspx
Key points of the GCI are:
Labour market efficiency was about the worst in the world 135/138
Macroeconomic environment couldn’t be much worse 134/138 and this refers to government policies and settings.
The quality of higher education and training is almost the worst in the world 134/138.
The security situation is rated the 6th worst in the world.
The top most problematic factors for doing business are 1. Policy instability, 2. Government Instability, 3, Access to Financing, 4. Foreign Currency Regulations, 5. Corruption, 6. Inadequate Supply of Infrastructure, 7. Poor Work Ethic in National Workforce.
Other areas with very poor results when compared with the worst of the rest of the world are:
Intellectual Property Protection.
Wastefulness of Government Spending.
Internet access in schools.
Staff training.
Reliance on professional management
Female workforce participation.
Ease of access to loans.
(Interestingly) Egypt exports less of its GDP than almost any country in the world.
Innovation, R and D investment, quality of science research and university/industry collaboration couldn’t get much worse.
The quality of management schools was actually the worst in the world – although I’m told officer training is very good.
Don't notice government initiatives aimed to address any of these problems but there seems to be no shortage of money for other purposes - frigates, fighter planes, new capital cities, VIP jets, widening the canal, new developments on the coast etc.
Good things were low rates of TB and HIV, available airline seats
, primary education enrollment, willingness to delegate , and (paradoxically) availability of scientists and engineers.Substantially poorer countries in the region like Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria do better.
Even Ethiopia with income per head about 1/7th of Egypt does better as does Bangladesh with one quarter the income. Being poor doesn’t mean you can’t organize your economy and society for growth if you have the right governance and government gets out of the way.
Somalia, Sudan, Haiti, Iraq, Afganistan and Guinea aren’t included otherwise Egypt’s results could have looked better. Al Ahram should have made that point.
Its a large pdf download - so be warned: https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-glo ... 16-2017-1/
