Egypt has well-diversified industries, and the cost and availability of labour have been competitive advantages for attracting investment. Now, as automation under the Fourth Industrial Revolution – also known as Industry 4.0 – gains pace around the world, Egypt is seeking to modernise its industry by adopting new technologies in production and service delivery to improve efficiency and boost the contribution of value-added products to the sector.
Efforts include applying robotics, nanotechnology, AI, IoT tools, biotechnology, self-driving vehicles and quantum computing. While this shift is in the early stages and there are variations across industry segments – oil and gas, for example, remains relatively underdigitalised compared to manufacturing – important first steps are enhancing Egypt’s competitiveness as a centre for production. In late 2019 the Industrial Modernisation Centre, formed by presidential decree in 2000, announced plans to create a centre of excellence for Industry 4.0 technologies to raise awareness of the benefits of automation and digitisation among small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as young entrepreneurs. Similarly, towards the end of 2020 the government established the Applied Innovation Centre to promote the use of AI, data science and the IoT in a variety of areas. Industry 4.0 is also the focus of ITIDA’s innovation clusters in Borg Al Arab and Assiut.
Nonetheless, large capital outlays remain a hurdle to implementing Industry 4.0 solutions at some private companies, and there are concerns regarding data ownership, the digital divide and unemployment. However, here, too, the pandemic has accelerated the shift to advanced technology, with universities, research labs and businesses all recognising the role technology plays in continuity amid health and mobility measures.
Read More from OBG
