268 CultureShock! Egypt
Business Information
You can check out the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt
website at:
(http://www.amcham.org.eg) for business news.the Bureaucracy Dealing with
Bureaucracies anywhere can be a defi nite pain! Unfortunately,
to establish a business or conduct many business transactions
in Egypt requires working with the bureaucratic infrastructure.
Rarely can you simply go to the local offi ce, pick up and fi ll
out the papers, and expect things to get done in a timely
fashion. It always appears to involve a lengthy process which
can try one’s patience. True, the Egyptian government is
making signifi cant changes to facilitate movement through
the bureaucracy, especially for the development of new
businesses, but reality changes slowly—very, very slowly, no
matter how good it looks in the press.
Why is working with the Egyptian bureaucracy so
problematic? Of course, part of the problem is the massive
paperwork and permits needed to get anything done. But
there is one other more perplexing problem. What happened
to all those forms you so dutifully submitted to the person at
the desk? How could they just disappear into the bottomless
chasm of Egyptian bureaucracy? Easy! Everyone must have
his input.
Now don’t forget that every Egyptian who has a job
(especially one of the valued white-collar jobs) feels pride
and honour with the job. This means they must show how
important they are (and that they actually do have a role in the
process). Overlaying this need to show personal importance
is that old bugaboo deference. Each person must fi lter every
action to the person next in line above them and, no matter
what, it seems diffi cult to jump layers in the deference scale
unless—and this is important—unless you have the personal
contacts to get straight through to the person you need. This
is where having an Egyptian agent (required for some kinds
of enterprises) or business partner who is well connected
can come in very useful.