The Doing Business with Finland seminar connected education and IT experts from Finland and Egypt

During this autumn, Finnpartnership has been supporting Finnish and Egyptian companies in building partnerships. Together with the National Initiative for Industrial Development (Ebda) and the Embassy of Finland in Cairo, we held four B2B Matchmaking webinars for companies and organisations from the health and pharmaceutical, ICT and education sectors as well as for companies interested in importing from Egypt. The webinars provided a glance on the Finnish and Egyptian markets and enabled the participants to meet for establishing initial connections with potential partners.

On 28 October, the webinars culminated in a joint Doing Business with Finland seminar, held in Cairo, Egypt. The event especially drew attention to the Finnish knowhow in education and IT, with in total 14 Finnish organisations presenting their offering at the seminar.

Highlighting the collaboration opportunities between the two countries, the seminar was opened by Ambassador Designate of Finland to Egypt, Riikka Eela, Finnpartnership’s Programme Director Birgit Nevala, and Ahmed Hafez, FDI Officer at Ebda.

Besides presenting versatile Finnish expertise in education and IT, the seminar displayed the market opportunities of Egypt particularly in education. Dr Rasha S. Sharaf, Secretary General of Education Development Fund, provided a concrete overview of how Egypt’s education sector is foreseen to be developing in the coming years, prompting the audience for a vivid joint conversation. During the day the over 70 participants also engaged in one-to-one discussions with each other, with separate time made solely for matchmaking.

Highlighting opportunities in the Egyptian market and supported by the EU and EBRD

Vocational education and teacher training offer particular opportunities for collaboration between Egypt and Finland which was highlighted by Dr Amr Bosila, Head of the Central Department for the Development of Technical Education at the Ministry of Education and Technical Education, and Dr Mohammed Toulan from the Career Development Department at the American University of Cairo. The audience also got to hear about initiatives that are responding to the Egyptian labour market needs via education, with presentations from Nora Abou El Seoud, CEO of Education for Employment, and Bassam Elshanwany, Chairman of Egyptian Junior Business Association.

Earlier this year, Egypt and the EU agreed on a strategic partnership which defines specific areas for cooperation. In this context, the seminar participants got to hear timely updates on EU’s activities and future goals in Egypt, also in the education sector, presented by Nikolaos Zaimis, Head of Section Trade, Science and Enterprise, and Ahlam Farouk, Project Officer Cooperation Section, from the EU Delegation to Egypt. Moreover, Reem Bassem Mikhail, Gender and Economic Inclusion Specialist at European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Cairo, shared about EBRD’s Human Capital Development activities in Egypt.

Finnpartnership would like to thank all the speakers and participants for the successful seminar!