Egypt looks to South Korea to revitalize small businesses
Egypt has moved to cooperate with South Korea to develop its small and medium-sized enterprises sector, which is the main pillar of sustainable development and a key to creating jobs for the country’s youth.
Egypt has made the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) a central pillar of its sustainable development strategy and a key to creating jobs for the country’s youth.
“SMEs play a pivotal role in enhancing the manufacturing cycle in Egypt,” Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly said Oct. 26 at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA). He added, “All government agencies are mobilizing their efforts to support and develop this vital sector.”
According to Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala al-Saeed, the SMEs sector in Egypt contains 1.7 million businesses, accounting for 44.6% of the total establishments in the formal private sector, and employs 5.8 million people.
“The SMEs sector, however, was one of the hardest-hit sectors by the coronavirus outbreak,” Saeed had said in June. “The pandemic has caused … significant challenges to emerging enterprises and businessmen, including a decline in the labor supply due to social distancing and work-from-home measures.”
