Egypt was selected among 18 countries by the Association of Business Service Leaders (ABSL), a leading international non-profit organisation, as world-class destinations for business services in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa region (EMEA).
The organisation connects global and local companies that have set up their global service centres in Central and Eastern European countries. The report, co-authored by Deloitte, JLL, and Randstad, profiles 18 carefully selected countries, and covers the whole spectrum of business services location options in EMEA.
The report, entitled “EMEA’s Business Services Landscape”, brings into focus a number of factors that have strengthened Egypt’s position as one of best destinations for business services. This includes its very large, well-educated workforce, and the highly-competitive operating costs it offers.
The report highlighted the availability of talent in Egypt giving it an edge, whilst allowing it to set itself apart from other near-shore destinations. As a result, Egypt can offer companies the possibility to implement service centres on a large scale.
“Egypt is a top country in terms of availability or supply of talent pool with accounts payable role, only second to the UK. This emphasises the potential for Egypt to host Finance shared services centres,” the report read.
“Egypt has established itself as a prime location for business and IT services for global operations serving 100 countries. The government proactively supports the sector, ranging from investments in talent and infrastructure to incentives and support to foreign investors.”
Egypt’s market is experiencing a shift in its services portfolios, the report confirmed, and throws light on the move from multilingual contact centres to high-value niche services such as product development and R&D.
“I’m thrilled that Egypt is the only non-European country to be listed in the report,” Hala El-Gohary, CEO of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), said.
El-Gohary noted that business services sector has recorded strong and consistent growth with high employment rates, with a total of 174,000 workers currently employed in the sector.
“We have a solid plan in place that guarantees the next wave of growth targeting to reach 225,000 as total employment by 2022,” she commented.
