Egypt and Outsourcing

 

Egypt- the land of sand and pharos. The place where you can say hello to a mummy on your way to school or work and those pyramids make a cute picture backdrop. A country as old as civilization itself. Not exactly the first place someone thinks about when talking about outsourcing and off shoring. But not so fast. Recently Egypt has begun to throw its hat in the outsourcing ring.

As a country where the youth unemployment rate was about 25% in 2011, Egypt needed an economic boost and jobs and outsourcing has provided just that. (Youth Unemployment)  Much new outsourcing business has come from the Information Technology world. For example, they have opened a 600 acre Smart Village of Cairo where all of the IT businesses are going. (Outsourcing to Egypt) This center is predicted to make up to 2 billion dollars by 2013 and 10 billion in ten years. Although with the technology outsourcing the employees don’t make an exorbitant amount of money ( A junior software analyzer with about four years of experience only makes about 12% of what their U.S counterparts do ) it has proved a step in the right direction. (Outsourcing to Egypt)  Also, there is still the old stand by of oil. That is especially true since they produce about 155, 200 barrels of oil a day (Egypt Trade).

Sadly, outsourcing when it comes back to importing has not been all that good to Egypt. That’s because they don’t produce many of the basics. For example, they need to import wood, equipment and some food from other countries like China and the U.S. Due to that their imports increased by 24%  in 2009, giving them a negative trade balance. (Egypt Trade) So although more technology jobs like call centers are being outsourced to them, Egypt still needs to make some more strides before out sourcing and off shoring can impact their economy in a completely positive way.

           

Still, Egyptians remain positive that outsourcing and off shoring will turn around and benefit them  more than it has in the past.  When asked why outsource to Egypt and Raya, Raya Technologies said it best when they said “Egypt is strongly emerging as a global call center destination, consented by international business intelligence pioneers - A.T.Kearny and Datamonitor, with a highly competitive industry offering a combination of operational expertise, people skills, cutting-edge technology, and competitive pricing schemes.” (Raya) Egypt has the youth and drive to succeed.  There is a reason that they were chosen outsourcing destination of the year in 2008 (Outsourcing to Egypt).  Now that the actual revolution has passed, Egypt has the chance to start over and really make a change. Hopefully with ambitious people and great outsourcing partners like Vodafone and Microsoft, Egypt will go nowhere but up. In this era of a shrinking world due to instant communication, things like off shoring and outsourcing have become easier than ever.

                                                            Citations

"Egypt Trade, Exports and Imports | Economy Watch." World, US, China, India Economy, Investment, Finance, Credit Cards | Economy Watch. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/egypt/export-import.html>.

"Outsourcing to Egypt | Country Profile & Statistics | 2011." SourcingLine | The Line on Top Services Firms. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.sourcingline.com/outsourcing-location/egypt>.

"Raya - Why Outsource?" Welcome to Raya - Pulse of the Future. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.rayacorp.com/ShowPage.aspx?PID=63>.

"Youth Unemployment: Young, Jobless and Looking for Trouble | The Economist." The Economist - World News, Politics, Economics, Business & Finance. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2011/02/youth_unemployment>.