1. Government supporting references
EDIT: Addedd TIEC (Government Incubator) Strategy Paper
TIEC Strategy paper: Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Strategy Link
This strategy paper is long with 142 pages and probably outdated: It was published April 2011 and outlines a strategy till 2014.
The details of the paper are very leafy and somewhat detached theoretical wishes (Flexible hiring, implement IP etc.).
I quote from the executive summary (Emphasis mine):
“Egypt’s ICT sector has become one of the key drivers of economic and social development. It has also become a role model in Egypt, in terms of pace and policies of deregulation and privatization, as well as a catalyst for reform in other sectors, contributing significantly to the abovementioned successes in the Egyptian economy. In addition, Egypt’s ICT sector has become a fundamental pillar in social development efforts, through a unique and distinguished experience of public-private partnership (PPP).”
National ICT-Strategy 2012-2017: Towards a Digital Society and Knowledge-based Economy Link
This paper is produced by the MCIT (Ministry of Communications & Information Technology) and is mainly about expanding the reach of ICT in Egypt (i.e. more broadband internet, getting schools online etc.) and developing the ICT sector. It is quite technical and doesn’t touch on entrepreneurship that much; i cite it for two reasons:
- A lot of meetings where with MCIT affiliated organisations, so this provides the strategy guiding them.
- Section 4: Developing Relevant Legislation, which discusses the proposed freedom of information and cybersecurity draft laws.
MCIT Digitial Economy 2014 presentation Link
This presentation is quite long, so I mention the only pages I deem interesting:
Page 30: A table outlining budget allocations for 20 Strategic Business Plans (SBP), showing basically the relative importance of each. Innovation and Entrepreneurship are one such SBP
Page 37: Very ambitious goals for educational system developemnt
Page 58: The Innovation & Entrepreneurship strategy, outlining quantitate targets for 2020 (i.e. 1000 startups)
Page 71/72: For the Legal frameworks
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit is how much the MCIT budgets for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship SBP, compared to the 19 others: It plans to invest just 1.2% of its entire budget in it, and estimates total investment in the sector to reach 6.4% of total investment in ICT. It hopes for "Attracting a USD 1 Bn of FDI and contributing an economic value
added of over USD 10 Bn"
There is no methodology listed for these numbers.
I contacted TIEC for their strategy paper, lets see if they respond. Meanwhile, here is the Project Document for TIEC itself, which was funded initially by UNDP money!
I could not find any other government sources for entrepreneurship support.
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This is a USAID entrepreneurship draft and undated report. I don’t know wether it has any value, to be frank. Another one of questionable value
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Perhaps I should try to contact Ashoka Egypt and Nahdet el Mahrousa for more info on Social Entrepreneurship? Both are incubators for social initiatives here in Egypt, and would sure contribute some to case studies/the argument for social entrepreneurship in Egypt?