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President's Letter
AmCham Egypt was more active than ever in 2005, with an unprecedented number of events, a growing membership and net revenues exceeding expenses.
The organization continued to fulfill its role as a forum for identifying and formulating the business community’s concerns, and relaying them to the government. By taking up the cause of specific sectors, we successfully resolved issues and helped companies in these sectors to conclude several key agreements.
AmCham Egypt’s 21 specialized committees met over a 100 times during the course of 2005, leveraging the depth and richness of our membership to provide a practitioner’s point of view on major economic issues. The sector-oriented committees also drafted a number of position papers on key economic policies, while AmCham Egypt conveyed these opinions to the government at the highest level.
Dialogue with both the Egyptian and international governments, meanwhile, continued at all levels. In 2005, AmCham met with representatives of a number of foreign embassies to examine ways to coordinate our advocacy efforts for a better business environment.
Particular emphasis was given to advocating trade and favorable business relations with Egypt’s largest single trading partner, the United States. In addition to inviting U.S. congressional staffers to visit Egypt, the Chamber sent its own representatives to the United States as part of its annual DoorKnock mission. The 40-member delegation met with congressional leaders and other important U.S. administration officials to foster mutual understanding and increase the local business community’s visibility in Washington.
During 2005, AmCham Egypt organized monthly luncheons and dozens of events featuring high-profile guest speakers from both the political and economic arenas. Higher attendance and the caliber of the attendees made these events a success.
AmCham Egypt also kept up its role of communicating issues to the broader public, by maintaining our continuous education programs in business and finance at Cairo University, as well as the many business courses offered by AmCham’s own Career Development Center (CDC). In 2005, the CDC offered 10 certificate preparation courses and trained over 2,300 employees from dozens of companies.
The Business Studies & Analysis Center (BSAC), meanwhile, produced fresh reports on the tourism, banking and petroleum sectors. BSAC also produced booklets on Egypt-U.S. trade and investment, the qualifying industrial zone (QIZ) agreement and economic reforms.
Publication of these and other AmCham materials fell under the auspices of AmCham’s Publications Department. The department is best known, however, for producing the Chamber’s flagship publication, Business Monthly magazine, which is circulated to nearly 8,500 subscribers in Egypt and is available to all on the Internet. Driven by an independent, news-driven editorial, the magazine continues to provide accurate reporting and commentary on business and the economy.
Our Business Information Center (BIC) continued to develop the AmCham Egypt website, which received 650,000 visitors a month and attracted banner advertisements. The BIC also expanded its Tenders Alert Service (TAS), while our state-of-the-art videoconferencing facilities saw increased demand.
Of course, AmCham Egypt is a team effort and our many achievements would not be possible without the tireless work of my colleagues on the Board of Governers.
Likewise, my special thanks go to Hisham Fahmy, executive director of AmCham Egypt, a gifted manager who with an extraordinary group of young men and women has helped strengthen the organization’s domestic and international standing. I’m continually impressed by AmCham Egypt’s first-class, committed staff, of which we can all be proud.
Finally, I would like to thank my fellow members for their support in 2005. It is your participation and dedication that makes AmCham Egypt the region’s premier business organization.
Sincerely,
Taher S. Helmy
President, AmCham Egypt
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