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Ahmed Farouk Ghoneim is a professor of economics in the faculty of economics and political science at Cairo University. He is a research fellow at the Economic Research Forum for Arab Countries (ERF) in Egypt, where his research focuses on Iran and Turkey, and is also a research fellow at the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE) in Poland. He works as a consultant to several international and national organizations including the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations World Food Programme, and the World International Properties Organization. He holds a Ph.D. in economics and his research interests include trade policy, trade in services, regional trade integration, the multilateral trading system, the World Trade Organization, competition, and the economics of intellectual property rights. He has held different policy oriented positions, such as advisor to Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Trade and advisor to Egypt’s Minister of Industry on foreign trade issues and international agreements.
The Egypt Economic Development Conference: Success or Failure?
Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah first conceived of the Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC) as a means of supporting Egypt and its new government after the toppling of President Mohamed Morsi in June 2013. The plan was to provide a forum through which donors could coordinate their economic assistance, and lengthy preparations finally culminated in a well-organized event on March 13-15.
If it manages to overcome some rather formidable obstacles, Egypt’s much touted “mega project of the century”—the Suez Canal Corridor Project (SCCP)—has the potential to transform the country into a world-class center for trade and industry.
Egypt and Subsidies: A Country Living Beyond Its Means
Since Egypt’s 2011 revolution, the country’s economy has been suffering, with almost all economic indicators pointing to a deteriorating situation—and this despite the unprecedented support of some of the Arab Gulf countries. Subsidies, which have always represented the social contract between the governing regime and the population, are a major problem. Though reforming subsidies has consistently been a concern, no regime over the last 60 years has been able to implement serious measures. Rather, a piecemeal approach has been used when adjustments to the subsidies system became urgent.
