On Wednesday 21st October,2020 at Steigenberger Pyramids Hotel, Cairo
The 2nd meeting for Open Factory project was held.
Cairo University
Gamal Darwish started the meeting welcoming every one of the attendees, expressing his sorrow that the Italian partners could not attend for the second time and wishing they could attend the further meetings. Gamal Darwish pointed out the main aim of this meeting is to analyze the results and achievements of the project which started last February as there are three months remaining till the end of the first year. He presented the agenda of the meeting assuring that each partners has selected members to represent in the committees. Also, he presented some of the newspaper articles about the project and some photos of the last meeting, assuring that all the documents and presentations are available on the shared drive.
Iman Saroit
She started the first session about the activities taken by Cairo University team. She mentioned that there were 20 meetings held, physical and online, as well as three visits to the Egyptian partners. In addition to the TOR for all partners. She also added designing the logo. Buying some new equipment for the project. Designing a database for both chambers as well as a survey sent to the Egyptian companies.
Hazem Elgendy
He started with talking about “Communication and Visibility Plan”; objectives, target groups and key messages. He cleared that there were two clear objectives: raising awareness with the importance of enhancing the development of the Egyptian Industry and specifically the Leather and Textile Industries and raising awareness with the objectives of the Open Factory Project. He also mentioned the target groups and their key massages and how to achieve them by press releases and news in various media channels, social media, meetings and questionnaires to develop the two industries. Hazem Elgendy stressedthe importance of training the trainers and evaluation of the work, before and after,. He also pointed out the importance of press release to inform about the project and targeting these two groups in particular as they reduce the unemployment and spread all over Egypt including small micro companies.
Sherif Mazen, the third representative of CU, had two presentations
1st : Report of industry sector in Egypt 2015-2020.
The presentation is based on local reports such as: strategic plan of sustainable development 2020-2030. Mazen stressed some points like: The Local Challenges to Promote Industrial Development and Foreign Trade. The strategic aims for promoting industrial development & foreign trade, the European Union’s role in promoting the development of industry & foreign trade in Egypt. He also mentioned the most important laws & declares which were issued for promoting Industry & Foreign Trade stressing the advantages of law no. 152 (2020) concerning Small, Medium & Micro projects. Finally, he expressed the initiatives of Central Bank of Egypt for supporting industry & trade.
2nd: E-commerce in Egypt.
Sherif Mazen explained the different types of e-commerce and advantages and disadvantages of it, and how to design a successful e-commerce Web Site. He also referred to the national e-commerce strategy for Egypt (March 2018)
IMC
Samy Naguib
Naguib gave an overview of the leather sector in Egypt which started in 1940s (showing some photos). In the 1980s the export started in blue wet phase and in 2011 the export in wet blue was banned. The leather of industry has two subsectors; tanning and leather industry. Naguib showed some data and graphs of the sector; current investment, current enterprises, raw material, local market and some problems that face leather industryin Egypt. Robbiki Leather City which is a leading leather city in Africa that has labs and mentainance unit and technical assistance to support the industry.
NRC,
Tamer Hamouda,
Hamouda started by talking about textile industry in Egypt as it is considered one of the most important industries with 27% of the total manufactured production. Textile Industries splits into two main categories; traditional textiles and technical textiles. In order for the NRC to prepare training programme, it has to examine the market as well as the opportunities. He presented some tables and graphs regarding market, exports and imports, and opportunities for both technical and traditional textile.
Progetto Sud
Stefano Bini:
Stefano made it clear that the first year of the project will end at the end of January 2021. According to the project application form, Four work packages should be fulfilled by the end of this stage; activities, tasks, role and budget resources. Progetto Sud is involved in WP1,2,3 and 7. For WP 1 which is carried by CU, another online meeting should be held by the end of the first year and documents should be presented to the European Commission. For WP1, Progetto Sud developed the internal management activities with CU as it finalized and described tasks and roles in the agreement. Also, it designed a schedule of the deadline of each stage. For WP7, Progetto Sud has already promoted the project through social media, Facebook, and brochures are being processed.
Progetto Sud is ready to offer help and guidance with WP2 if needed as well as promoting consents and sharing information shared concerning WP7. Stefano presented the two Best Practices; one was about the sustainable development goal no. 8 “Descent Work”. The second one was about goal no.5 “Gender Equality”.
The first one could be useful with WP2, while the second one is useful with WP4.
Chamber of Leather Industry
Amr Hefny,
He gave an overview of the chamber; strategy and the lines of action. He pointed out the objectives of the chamber such as accessing local and international markets and increasing employment opportunities and exports. He listed the main problems that face the industry and the expected plans to overcome them. Hefny introduced the services and facilities offered by the chamber such as preparing a database for the members and informing them with the exports opportunities.
Chamber of Textile Industry,
Khaled Behairy,
He draw a quick sketch of the chamber; establishment in 1973 to work as a link between textile factories and manufactures. Now, the chamber is the official representative of textile factories in Egypt. He also talked about the aims of the chamber and the services it provides to its members to develop textile industry in Egypt.
Regarding the project, the chamber has already sent the questionnaire to the companies and 1072 were already done and analyzed
Sercam Advisory,
Nicole Conte,
She explained the role of Sercam Advisory in WP1,2,3 and 7 as WP1 has already started in the first month. She presented the activities done so far and the planned activities. Sercam Advisory will provide business models, funding and support for the target groups. It also will drive job creation in WP5 as well as taking part in 5 capacity building mission in Egypt during the entire project. Conte explained the idea of the “innovative manager|” to support the companies in digital transformation, to analyze and introduce new technologies. The innovative manager should have a strategic vision to choose the right technologies and to anticipate the demands and supply. Besides, he/she should have the ability to change and inspire people.
Link Campus University,
Valentina Volpi, She started by listing what Link Campus University has achieved so far: creating an online section of the project on the LCU website, preparation of the ToR of LCU and preparing financial statement and narrative reports for the lead applicant. Some news was already shared as well as social media activities. Valentina also mentioned the future tasks of the University; taking part in the local capacity building mission in WP 4&5, managing the e-learning platform infrastructure. Valentina also presented the “Circular Design Guide”which is a set of practical tools to facilitate collaboration and positive impact in the design of the new solutions.