The American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (AmCham Egypt) was established in 1982 as the 44th American Chamber of Commerce affiliated to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Since then and for nearly four decades, it has been an active advocate, a strong supporter, and the leading voice of the private sector in Egypt. From the outset, its mission was to support and advance trade and investment opportunities between Egypt and the United States. Today the chamber membership includes 950 corporates represented by over 2,000 members covering most business and industry sectors of the economy.
Although I have been closely following AmCham Egypt activities and attending events since the mid-1990s, I became an affiliate member in 2007. During the past 15 years, I served as chair and co-chair of several sector-focused committees starting with digital transformation (formerly named information and communication technology), then in 2010 jointly with my friend and AmCham member Ahmed El-Daly, we proposed to the board of governors establishing a committee on entrepreneurship and innovation which was approved and we co-chaired for a term then I moved to education for competitiveness (formerly named education), and finally I joined the international cooperation committee.
I also served several times on the chamber’s board of governors including as executive vice president during the period 2013-2015. Besides, since 2012, I was honored to become a principal member representing The American University in Cairo (AUC) based on the recommendation of AUC President Lisa Anderson which gave me the opportunity to further contribute with my fellow members at the chamber in regularly promoting trade and investment, business development opportunities as well as exploring different venues to advance the collaboration between Egypt and the United States on various economic sectors and priority issues including but not limited to oil and gas, manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare as well as education, information, and communication technology, and entrepreneurship. During those years, I was privileged to be part of an incredible effort that AmCham Egypt has consistently pursued for decades and that is to work with different constituents in Egypt including government officials, policymakers, and the private sector to help promote a better and more vibrant, inviting, competitive and agile business environment. On this note, I want to emphasize that I firmly believe that harnessing the potential of the private sector is the best way forward for Egypt to realize inclusive and sustainable development, strengthen the economy and help it grow and prosper.
Besides, over the years I joined my colleagues in over a dozen doorknock missions to the United States. Being part of and representing both AUC and AmCham Egypt was so complementary because the core mission of both institutions is virtually the same and that is to help and contribute to Egypt’s development journey whether through lifelong learning and investing in its most important asset —human capital— or by identifying business, trade and investment prospects across the country’s diversified economy. During those missions, my focus has always been to avail more opportunities for scholarships and fellowships for Egyptian students and scholars at different educational levels to travel to the United States and equally important to encourage more exchange and study abroad students from the United States to come to Egypt. I have always been convinced that it is invaluable to build people-to-people relationships across different countries for better understanding, cultural exposure, and as a platform for collaboration and partnerships.
During these meetings-packed missions, I also focused on advancing the efforts to support the growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Egypt through institutional partnerships, funding, bootcamps, mentorship as well as technical and managerial training given the potential impact those tech-enabled and innovative startups can have on Egypt’s development journey in terms of creating jobs, especially among the youth and women, offering solutions to many of the challenges faced and providing tech-driven platforms for financial inclusion. I always saw synergies between the institutional roles of AUC and AmCham in the sense of promoting Egypt, its soft-power, geopolitical location, economic, business, trade, and investment potential, and more importantly its invaluable role on the regional and global scale.
After more than a decade as a member, on the 28th of May 2019, during the annual general meeting of AmCham Egypt, a new board of governors was announced and I was honored to become the 18th president of the chamber for the period June 2019-May 2021. However, what started off as a normal board term for the first few months with ambitious plans and a diverse portfolio of activities going full-fledged in serving as always our esteemed members and realizing our mission turned out to be anything but normal. It was proof that one can plan as much as he wants but then things happen in a completely different way.
Less than six months into the board’s term, the world witnessed the first reported case of Covid-19 on the 17th of November 2019 in Wuhan, China which escalated into a disruptive global pandemic. The repercussions included slowing down economies; forcing millions to work from home or remotely to follow the precautionary health and safety measures; affecting financial markets; disrupting value chains, and causing financial distress to private sector companies and especially small and medium-sized enterprises and eventually leading to job losses; in other words, affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. The world witnessed a long standstill and a shift from encouraging business continuity to focusing on the health and safety of society and curbing the progress of the virus while looking at alternative options, including the acceleration of digital transformation to keep economies and businesses operational. A few months later, Egypt was hit with its first reported case on the 14th of February 2020 which prompted AmCham Egypt shortly after to push all of its flagship events to become virtual. To the chamber’s credit, the transition —although sudden and unexpected— was seamless. In fact, the digital platforms created alternative opportunities to connect with different members not just to continue the already ongoing dialogues on various issues with different constituents including policymakers, the private sector, and other strategic partners but also given the new realities explore new prospects enabled through digital transformation and the power and reach of the 4th industrial revolution while keeping an eye on becoming more inclusive and conscious not to contribute to furthering any existing divide.
For more than three-quarters of the term, AmCham Egypt had to strike a balance between the health and safety of everyone associated with it including its staff as well as its members while pushing for advocacy and engagement, supporting business continuity, and serving society. In parallel, several ongoing projects were implemented, including restructuring of the organization to become more member-centric and exploring new venues for collaboration with regional stakeholders including signing partnership agreements with AmCham Greece and AmCham Cyprus. Besides, one of the key projects that reflects the chamber’s societal engagement and impact was an initiative launched in April 2020 led by AmCham Egypt and under the umbrella of the AmCham Egypt Foundation labeled “the private sector alliance against Covid-19” in collaboration with the government of Egypt and in coordination with UNICEF with an objective to support the national efforts to combat the pandemic. The initiative truly demonstrates the sense of societal responsibility of the AmCham Egypt community.
During this term, there were too many firsts for AmCham Egypt: the first virtual webinar, the first training course conducted online, the first virtual monthly event, the first virtual Pre-Annual and Annual General Meetings, and most importantly, the first year—in fact, two years—without any doorknock missions. However, our advocacy efforts remained strong. We hosted a record number of events online and, in collaboration with AmCham Egypt Inc, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S.-Egypt Business Council, and the Egypt-U.S. Business Council conducted several virtual meetings with Washington-based policymakers and others to advance the bilateral strategic partnership between Egypt and the United States.
Nevertheless, despite these unprecedented times and challenging circumstances, I have to admit that it was quite an interesting term that showed the resilience of the chamber and its entire community as we stayed focused on our mission of promoting a better business climate while at the same time supporting our valued members throughout the pandemic.
Surely, as much as it was exciting and fulfilling, it was not what we all expected and were used to. We all missed meeting each other in person, exchanging views during committee meetings, networking in breakfast talks and luncheon events, and definitely, we missed our doorknock mission in back-to-back years which never happened since the establishment of the chamber back in 1982. Understandably, the health and safety precautionary measures made the experience of three-quarters of this board term very different for all of us.
Now that my term as president is coming to an end, I look back on what the chamber managed to accomplish despite the challenging circumstances, and I feel satisfied given the unprecedented conditions we had to navigate. I have to admit, though, I never thought I would be leading the chamber through these unusual times. Those challenges pushed us to exert every possible effort to overcome them and, more importantly, identify the opportunities that could be derived from them.
With the vaccine rollout on, I hope we go back soon to normalcy. Egypt is embarking on a three-year program of structural reforms designed to support private sector-led economic growth in a diverse portfolio of sectors including—but not limited to—manufacturing, information and communication technology, and agriculture. These reforms require measures to address liberalizing trade, enhancing competition, and upgrading the transportation and logistics infrastructure to improve the business environment, and AmCham Egypt through its diverse membership can play an integral part in the process as one of the strongest advocates in Egypt’s journey to realize sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
Finally, it has been an honor to serve as president of AmCham Egypt and to lead this gem organization for the past two years. It was a demanding obligation that I truly enjoyed. This was a classical case of effective institutional teamwork where everyone contributed and I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues on the board of governors, the invaluable role played by the committee leaders, and last but definitely not least the management team and staff in Cairo and the almost daily coordination and alignment with our affiliate organization in Washington, D.C. AmCham Egypt Inc. for working tirelessly to support our members during these uncertain times. The next period looks to be both promising and busy and as the chamber journey continues, I welcome the incoming board of governors and wish them all the very best and much better luck.
About the author: Sherif Kamel is a Professor of Management, Dean of the School of Business at The American University in Cairo, and President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt
29 May 2021
Issue #14
Dr Sherif Kamel favors us with this compréhensive and insightful essay. He is a challenging leader for normal times and an exceptional leader for challenging times
Shawki Farag June1 2021
Sherif ... ... you make reading ... enjoyable! And yes!! Had your AmCham presidency been under normal circumstances I'm sure you would have achieved even more!!
Thank you for your service!!