1st batch of Cairo, Cambridge universities' joint innovation master's program graduates Dec. 2020

CAIRO - 23 December 2020: Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, celebrated on Tuesday, December 22, the graduation of the first batch of the Master's of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, which was launched by the Ministry's Rowad 2030 project in cooperation with the universities of Cairo and Cambridge in 2018.

The celebration took place at the headquarters of Cairo University in the presence of Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research; Dr. Muhammad Othman Al-Khasht, President of Cairo University; Dr. Ghada Khalil, director of the Rowad 2030 project; Dr. Mahmoud El-Said, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science; Mr. Mohamed Al-Atribi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Banque Misr; and Mr. Hisham Okasha, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Egypt.

During her speech, Dr. El-Said confirmed that entrepreneurship and encouraging innovation have an important and pivotal role in global economies, being one of the most prominent engines of economic growth that contribute to creating job opportunities and diversifying sources of income. Entrepreneurship also gains its importance from its ability to make a positive impact within the business community.

El-Said explained that the entrepreneurship sector is receiving special attention from the Egyptian government, which is keen to create an environment for young entrepreneurs, whether by supporting the culture of self-employment or by providing the necessary funding for their projects and initiatives, as well as expanding the establishment of business incubators to maximize the benefit from the enormous human wealth that Egypt has in a society in which the youth group exceeds 65%.

The minister added that the Egypt Vision 2030 includes a major axis to encourage knowledge, innovation and scientific research, envisioning a creative, innovative, and productive society for science, technology, and knowledge, characterized by the existence of an integrated system that achieves and guarantees the developmental value of innovation and knowledge.

Regarding the medium, small and micro enterprises sector, El-Said said that it is the backbone of the Egyptian economy, as the number of existing establishments reached about 1.7 million establishments and represent 44.6% of the total number of establishments in the formal private sector, in addition to the number of workers in the sector reaching about 5.8 million workers.

El-Said also indicated during her speech the measures taken by the state to encourage this sector, which was distinguished by their inclusion of various aspects that support the work environment of these projects, whether on the financing side by launching initiatives to provide credit facilities for these projects, or non-financial services for entrepreneurship, which include providing marketing, logistical and technological services, in addition to providing training to qualify human cadres.

She stressed that, in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development's belief in the necessity of strengthening the state’s approach to stimulating entrepreneurship, the Rowad 2030 project was launched in 2018, which aims to spread the culture of entrepreneurship by building the capabilities of youth and developing their skills to enable them to transform their ideas into projects on the ground and benefit from their energies to contribute to supporting economic growth and creating job opportunities for them and others, by launching many programs and initiatives.

The minister added that these programs include a professional master's program in entrepreneurship in cooperation with the University of Cambridge in Britain and the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University, in addition to the establishment of nine business incubators in the field of artificial intelligence and tourism, as well as an online Egyptian-African incubator through which more than 600 incubation opportunities were provided. They also included the establishment of a micro-factory in cooperation with the Central Bank and the Nile Pioneers Initiative, in addition to the establishment of an Entrepreneurial Observatory (Pioneers Meter) that is a continuously updated national database that provides quarterly reports on the latest work of all incubators in Egypt to entrepreneurs and decision-makers.

El-Said added that the "Start Your Future Campaign" was launched in schools, through which more than 300,000 students and more than 1,500 teachers were reached nationwide, including more than 10,000 university students. "Entrepreneur Capsules", a group of video clips on entrepreneurship topics presented by a group of experts and specialists in the field of entrepreneurship, are broadcasted daily through social networking sites to continue spreading the culture of entrepreneurship in light of Corona pandemic.

Regarding the stages of the professional master's program specialized in entrepreneurship and innovation management, Dr. El-Said noted during her speech that about 1,600 young men and women in the age group of 22 to 40 years old have applied to join the program, and a committee of several former ministers and distinguished university professors was formed to sort the applications. This will then be followed by personal interviews for those who meet several criteria, the most prominent of which is having an excellent level of English and that the applicant has an excellent grade at the bachelor's level, in addition to some personal characteristics.

About 28 young men and women have been selected over two years, who have studied specialized subjects such as business administration, project financing methods, team management, and other topics, in addition to participating in specialized workshops and simulation models and going to study at Fitz William College at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom to study at the hands of a group of professors. They also continued their learning journey at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University.

El-Said explained that the graduate students have formulated 15 projects that serve the basic sectors of the Egyptian economy, and they are currently ready to implement their projects on the ground. She noted that some innovative graduation projects have contributed to efforts to confront the Corona crisis, such as creating a smart application to detect Corona by phone, which is under the accreditation process from the concerned authorities, in addition to designing a preliminary product for plastic protective masks that will be used for one year with the filter being changed daily, which it is also under approval to start its circulation.