Trade and Industry Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said the fact that Egypt's position had fallen on this year's global competitiveness index did not mean that the government's economic reform policies had not been effective.
Rachid made the comments at the launch this week of a competition held by the Egyptian Competitiveness Center for the Arab world's most competitive companies.
Egypt fell from number 70 out of 133 countries on last year's global competitiveness index to number 81 out of 139 countries this year.
The minister went on to say that the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness report had highlighted a number of achievements by the government, along with certain shortcomings that need to be addressed.
According to National Competitiveness Council President Helmy Abul Eish, this year’s competition included 500 companies from Arab states that had distinguished themselves regionally and globally.
Council Director Mona al-Baradei, for her part, said that such competitions served to improve the competitiveness of small and medium-sized Egyptian companies.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
