- July 11, 2012
- 8:00 pm
- Cliff Shultz
- no comments
Getting down to Business in Egypt and Libya
The dust has settled on the Egyptian elections: the candidate from the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Mursi, has been elected president. This outcome has created angst in some quarters, including liberal democracies, the foreign investment community, and in the Egyptian military. The concern is that President Mursi and his Party will usher-in a sectarian model of intolerance and exclusion, and that the promise of Arab Spring for Egypt – and its neighbors – will wither into yet another cycle of political repression and socioeconomic dysfunction.
I don’t see it that way. The era of Egyptian authoritarianism ended with Mr. Mubarak’s ouster. Mr. Mursi in turn was elected to serve Egyptians. It’s one thing to be a disenfranchised candidate or party, raging against the machine, pointing-out every failure of a repressive regime. It’s quite another to be thrust into a leadership role; to provide solutions to all the shortcomings and transgressions against which you raged for decades. Jobs-creation, education-reform, transportation, housing, water-treatment, food production and distribution, market-pricing and/or subsidies, health-care, and myriad other challenges will force conciliation, inclusion, entrepreneurship, market-orientation and business-friendly ties to foreigners of all hues and stripes. Egypt simply has too many problems, needs too much help, and its citizens are too connected to the modern world for the newly elected president to regress to a medieval model of governance, despite rhetoric from the Brotherhood or discordant elements of Egyptian society.
Those of us who work in emerging markets see these problems as opportunities. (Do we have any other choice?) I have mentioned in an earlier blog that Egypt does possess some impressive human and physical resources. Transparent, market-oriented and just policies initiated by the newly elected Mr. Mursi can stimulate a new era of Egyptian dynamism, growth, and individual and societal wellness. In the fresh air of democracy wafting across Egypt, if Mr. Mursi and the Brotherhood do not seize opportunities embedded in the challenges, then the needs of the people likely will not be served, and the next round of elections likely will result in an opportunity for some other disenfranchised group, raging against the Brotherhood’s machine.
A similar situation is unfolding in Libya, following elections held this past weekend. Can the newly elected leader of Libya – the results are still undecided at the time of this writing – seize opportunities in a fractured social-political-economic landscape reeling from decades of Muammar Gaddafi’s terror and mismanagement? Will oil, pristine coast lines and UNESCO heritage sites prove to be assets developed wisely and sustainably, or will Libya succumb to the “resource curse”?
What exact market mechanisms, ideas, products, services and entrepreneurial endeavors are required, and perhaps in what order to ensure good and just development in Egypt, Libya and across the region? Your ideas and opinions are welcome.
Readers might also want to note that July 27-29, 2012 the Quinlan School of Business and Loyola University Chicago will host the 4th Subsistence Marketplaces Conference. Many of the types of challenges/opportunities found in Egypt and elsewhere will be discussed by scholars and business practitioners from around the world; many solutions will be shared. Some details, including a link to the program, can be found here: http://www.luc.edu/sba/subsistence2012/ .