The Canada Egypt Business Council (CEBC) is dedicated to strengthening and deepening the Canadian-Egyptian partnership, a relationship that is based on bilateral trade, mutually shared values, and Egypt’s strategic role in the Middle East. Our missions to Canada basically seek to communicate Egypt’s business perspective and exchange ideas to benefit both countries.

CEBC had played an active role in presenting the views of the Egyptian business community to both the Canadian business side as well as to the Canadian government, especially on issues such as economic reform, privatization, and investment opportunities. Building a deeper Canadian-Egyptian commercial, trade and political relationship is CEBC’s main focus in addition to presenting new opportunities for Canadian companies to open and invest in Egypt.

The strategic partnership between Egypt and Canada reflects a shared commitment to regional peace and security that is based on such values as trade liberalization, free markets, political stability, and a peaceful resolution to regional conflicts. Private sector leaders have been key actors in facilitating democratic and economic reform throughout Egypt, which accounts for 25% of the Arab population, and therefore influences the Middle East region. Canadian-Egyptian partnership is thus important in promoting both nations’ mutual interests in the Middle East especially that Egypt is now one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Trade Mission 08:

The 2008 trade mission had an Educational theme, in parallel to the business line whose main focus is to deepen the trade and investment relations between Egypt and Canada. The mission included around 50 delegates including representatives of different ministries, educational institutions, private sector’s veterans, as well as representatives of the Egyptian and Foreign media . The mission was headed this year by H.E. Dr. Hany Helal, Minister of Higher Education and State for Scientific Research, Mr. Assem Ragab, Chairman of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), and Eng. Motaz Raslan, Chairman of the Canada Egypt Business Council (CEBC). There were also several high ranking government officials representing ministries of Foreign Affairs, Tourism and Interior.

Why Education?

Egypt’s recently adopted economic reform program is directly linked to education development policies. Egyptian Government has obviously placed education on top of the country’s priorities during the past decade. This was embodied in considering education as Egypt’s giant national project, which aimed at reinforcing education reform considerably and comprehensively through adopting an ambitious program that includes the establishment of modernized schools, the reforming, and equipment of the existing universities, the continuous improvement of curricula, and the introduction of developed educational technology.

In spite of the tremendous efforts aimed at providing citizens with equal educational opportunities, the quality of education in Egypt is not at the requisite level. Egypt remains far behind many other countries when it comes to per capita spending on education. The expenditures on education in Egypt stand at $129.6 per student per year, compared to $289.5 in Tunisia, $1,337.6 in Saudi Arabia, $4,763.4 in America, and $6,959.8 in Japan.”

Egypt has always persisted that Education is a “Human Right” for every citizen, having “Education for All” as the main national education motto and educational goal. For achieving this goal, Egypt’s education quantitative and qualitative approaches should be enhanced up to the international standards. It is not a novel proposition that improving quality of education involves a financial investment that includes improving research facilities, and enhancing teaching and research capacities particularly in this age of information and communication.

The recently implemented privatization program of sectors that was traditionally owned by the state would definitely lead to an increase in the private sector’s demand for research and development. Research in universities should be directed toward Egypt’s needs for growth and progress and the involvement of the private sector in financing the research as well as international partnerships, affiliations and accreditations is highly demanded now a days.

At CEBC we have strived for years to achieve this goal through our recurrent trade missions to Canada through unifying efforts with our Canadian partners to initiate a cooperative structure with the functions of expanding international partnerships, considering mainstreaming strategies, and ensuring long-term endorsement and commitment of the Egyptian Canadian parties.

For all of the above, we decided to dedicate this year’s visit to Canada to serve the Educational Reform purpose, where H.E. Dr. Hany Helal, Minister of Higher Education and State for Scientific Research discussed new means of bi-lateral cooperation between the two countries in the field of education and research since Canada is one of the top providers of high quality educational systems that is recognized globally.

Canada and Egypt ‘A Win-Win’ Bilateral Trade

Egypt’s recent economic reform policy had led to more strong bilateral economic ties between Canada and Egypt. Egypt is ranked the 37th globally and 4th regionally among Canada’s largest export markets. Based on the recent figures, Canada’s goods exports reached a record high of $412.8 million. The principal Canadian exports to Egypt consisted of wheat, paper and paperboard, iron ore, machinery, aircraft, mineral fuel and oil, vegetables, wood pulp, iron and steel, and electrical machinery. Canada’s goods imports from Egypt reached $140.2 million. Canada’s main imports from Egypt include fertilizers, mineral fuels and oil, electrical machinery, textile floor covering (carpets), iron and steel, inorganic chemicals, knitted and woven apparel.