The Egyptian Exporting Community and the Institutional Setup: Assessment of The Last Decade Developments and Perspectives for The EU-Med Partnership

This study evaluates the development of the institutional environment in Egypt over the last decade from the perspective of the Egyptian exporting community. The main objective is to judge whether or not the institutional infrastructure is ready to supply Egyptian exporters with what is needed to cope with the liberal environment imposed by globalization, in general and by the proposed EU-Med agreement, in particular. Based on the results of a questionnaire distributed among a random sample of 45 Egyptian exporters, the study concluded that, in general, there has been overall progress in the institutional setup facing exporters in the last decade. However, it also identified a number of loopholes that need to be seriously tackled by the government in order to reach an efficient institutional environment. Among such loopholes are the incompetence of the Export Promotion Agencies, high prices for services, and a lack of an efficient system for enforcement of laws. The study revealed that the expected EU-Med Agreement can play a positive role in overcoming the inefficiency of laws enforcement and that the present labor market regulations do not represent a threat to export oriented development.