Briefs
Azeri ties
A JOINT Azerbaijani-Egyptian economic development committee recently held its second meeting in Cairo during which several agreements to develop trade and economic cooperation were approved. The agreements are meant to develop cooperation in agriculture, trade, industry and culture.
The meeting was chaired by Faiza Abul-Naga, Egyptian minister of international cooperation, and Heydar Babayev, the Azerbaijani economic development minister.
The committee first met in Baku in 2002.
Near the top
ALLIANZ Egypt has been ranked immediately after Allianz US in the worldwide Operational Excellence project (OPEX) which aims at increasing the efficiency of business operations by standardising processes to improve employees' technical competency, thus boosting customer satisfaction.
The ranking was conducted among 31 Allianz branches worldwide, with four Allianz branches in The Netherlands, Britain, the US and Egypt, being selected to participate in the finals.
According to John Metcalf, chairman of Allianz Egypt, applying the OPEX system will lead to impressive results in terms of productivity and efficiency enhancement. "Employee productivity with regards to generating new business will increase by 40 per cent while overall time and cost saving in personal activities is expected to increase by 50 per cent," Metcalf said.
Through the implementation of similar projects, Allianz aims to maintain a leading position in the Egyptian insurance market. "The company seeks to apply multinational operational standards while adapting them to local market conditions," Metcalf added.
ABA first
THE ALEXANDRIA Business Association (ABA) has been chosen the first non-governmental organisation in Egypt to host a specialised training centre for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The centre aims to help SMEs to grasp the know- how in an attempt to hone their abilities to become more efficient and competitive in the international market.
SMEs participating in the centre can enter training programmes to enhance their abilities, have access to modern technology and to receive technical advice related to choosing and designing strategies set up by small businesses.
The ABA, which was chosen by the International Trade Centre in Switzerland and Hewlett Packard, an international IT solution provider, will also participate in the marketing process of the centre and will help build a network among other training centres established in 13 countries worldwide.
New ideas
THE INTERNATIONAL Development Evaluation Association, whose membership includes 500 development evaluation experts from 90 countries, recently announced it will assist in developing monitoring and evaluation systems in various Egyptian government entities.
Similar aid began in 2003 in a number of ministries including electricity, higher education and finance and a number of authorities such as tax and sales tax.
The programme is to institutionalise and build up capacity in monitoring and evaluation and performance budgeting for fiscal reform, expenditure control and enhanced quality public service delivery.
The main challenge now, according to Doha Abdel-Hamid, resident representative of the association, is to embed sustainable monitoring and evaluation systems in the pilot ministries, and to advance work on designing management information databases and budgetary systems for monitoring both developmental and financial performance. Another challenge is to link ministerial programme outputs to national objectives and to expand the network to other ministries.
The system, which started out with eight ministries in 2003, has since been introduced into 22 additional ministries.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/776/ec2.htm