Enabling Egyptian Exports through Technology Transfer Driven Product Innovation – EEPI Project

Project Summary 

The EU- funded EEPI project will help Egyptian companies through their export journey to Europe by fostering their capacity to innovate in their products to meet European markets requirements. To achieve this aim, the project will assess the European market needs, and identify concrete export opportunities for Egyptian products. Companies will then be supported in developing innovative business and product concepts, and commercializing these products in the EU market through business matchmaking with European partners.

The project endeavours to be a success story in bringing Egyptian products much closer to sustained international presence through innovation and creativity, an onward and upward path for Egypt’s Engineering Industry towards global competitiveness.

Project Approach 

The European Union (EU) supports utilizing innovation as a major driver of competitiveness, to enable Egyptian Industrial companies to be better positioned to reach export markets through funding the Engineering Export Council of Egypt that has taken the initiative to qualify Engineering companies to export to the European market.

Project Activities 

The EU- funded EEPI project will help Egyptian companies through their export journey to Europe by fostering their capacity to innovate in their products to meet European markets requirements. To achieve this aim, the project will assess the European market needs, and identify concrete export opportunities for Egyptian products. Companies will then be supported in developing innovative business and product concepts, and commercializing these products in the EU market through business matchmaking with European partners.

To ensure that the desired impact is realized, the project brings together experts from diverse entities, best positioned to deliver the needed support. The Engineering Export Council of Egypt (EEC) with their knowledge of the Engineering Industry and long term experience in export development programs will collaborate with Innovety LLC - an Egyptian leading innovation consulting company, the Italian Consortium ARCA who are experts in the areas of technology transfer and business innovation, and Globally Cool from the Netherlands – a company specialized in sustainable international trade development.

The project will target one hundred companies to receive competency-building tools, such as export readiness assessment and business opportunity mapping. The project will focus on seizing the opportunities in the European market within the engineering industry. Other local sectors which have a competitive edge will be included, such as electricity, home appliances, feeder industries, metal forming, etc.

EEPI project will contribute toward building the capacities of the companies to conduct product adaptation and innovation, as well as networking with European partners. Moreover, the program will provide an export manual to Europe for all Egyptian companies. A technology repository will be developed to include all technology scouting that takes place outside or inside Egypt.

Other activities will include: 

• gathering industrial data and market intelligence
• assessing and selecting beneficiary MSMEs
• developing a technology transfer process and framework
• mapping business opportunities and selecting 25 final MSME beneficiaries for the realization phase where we develop commercialization roadmaps for them
• building their capacity and empowering intermediary organizations for technology transfer, commercialization and exporting
• creating B2B linkages and matchmaking between Egyptian MSMEs and European markets.
• study of the EU’s global imports and of best exporting practices
• benchmarking with EU best practices in/for the target markets
• market intelligence and mapping to assess the global market potential and commercialization opportunities with a competitive advantage for Egyptian products
• identify technological areas,their potential applications and promising technology providers
• business and technical capacity building, coaching and mentoring of MSMEs
• stakeholders’ study tour to Italy
• consolidate business linkages between MSMEs and global suppliers