Business Week: Egypt's Minister Of Modernization a man on the move
Business Week has published an article on Egypt's Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade. Business Week said "When it comes to getting the state out of the economy, Mohamed Rachid is all business."
Business Week said "On his second day on the job as managing director of General Motors Egypt, Don Butler was somewhat surprised earlier this year to find himself meeting with Foreign Trade and Industry Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid. Rachid, the first international business executive to take an Egyptian Cabinet post in recent memory, is a man in a hurry. He wants to boost Egypt's exports and employment. So he began talking with GM about an idea for a pilot project involving its Egyptian parts supplier network. Within four weeks of the first meeting, both sides had agreed to undertake a 'gap analysis' of the top 20 of GM's 103 Egyptian suppliers to figure out how to bring them up to world-class standards. The benefits would be twofold: GM Egypt, which makes 20,000 cars a year, would get better-quality parts, and the Egyptian companies 'could become candidates to supply GM on a global basis,' Butler says."
Business Week "Rachid's overarching goal is to complete Egypt's transition from a public-sector-dominated economy to one where the private sector drives development.. He had never wanted to be a Minister, and becoming one, he judged, would mean 'sudden death' for a prospering international business career. Overnight, he had to resign his position as president of Unilever Group's food business in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, as well as 26 other board seats. Rachid had joined Unilever in 1991 after selling a majority stake in his family's food business, Fine Foods, to the Anglo-Dutch company."
Business Week reported about his business skills in pushing reforms thru, and that executives say he is always available to troubleshoot. "In the past, it took almost literally three years to meet a Minister," says Tarek Kabil, chairman of Pepsi-Cola Egypt. "I can meet him today if I have any issue."