Egyptian National Competitive Advantage

Nations today have become more important and their role has increased because of the increasing global competition and shifting of the basis of competition toward creation and adaptation of knowledge. These nations differentiate in values, institutions, culture and economic structures and these differences play a significant role in the competitive success. Nations cannot compete in every industry or even most of industries, they can only success in few particular industries according to several factors. There is no standard pattern of competitiveness that may work in every country because each country has its own characteristics.

Porter 's diamond model is one of the most significant theories of national competitive advantage. National advantage

Porter 's diamond can be used to measure the national competitive advantage of any industry including the Egyptian 's agricultural industry. According to Porter 's diamond, the factor conditions are categorized into five categories. First, human resources that are presented in low labor, however, there is low labor productivity. Second, physical resources and they involve highland quality, high land productivity, stable water source despite the inefficient use of the water and different crops available during all the year (summer crops & winter crops). Third, knowledge is dramatically poor in the Egyptian agricultural industry because of limited farmer education & the unavailability of good training, limited research capability. Fourth, the capital of the industry has been increasing in the past few years because of the government commitment to enhancing this sector and the rise of private investments. Fifth, the Egyptian infrastructure is facing several problems such as poor supply chain infrastructure, lack of developments in new lands, limited services capacity and limited private sector participation in those services and the increasing price of energy. Regarding demand conditions, Egypt 's rapidly growing population means that agricultural products might face an increase in demand, however, the local demand is based on price rather than quality; the demand increase was on processed and convenience foods which open the potential of exports and international marketing for

According to Porter, governments play an important role in his diamond model. He argues that there some things they do but they should not and other things they don’t do but they should. Porter classified the government role into 8 different factors. However, in the case of Egypt, the Egyptian government should alter and modify its role and impact in several ways in order to improve its competitive advantage. First, the government should establish basic national infrastructure and research in different areas which concern different nationals such as health care. However, these general efforts hardly produce competitive advantage. In the other hand, advanced efforts which are specialized and related to a specific industry can be a source of competitive advantage. Advanced efforts include activities associated with trade, research efforts in universities related to an industry and private investments; those efforts create the factors which produce competitive advantage. Second, the government should implement strict regulations for product performance, product safety, and environment which will force companies to use latest technologies, improve quality and provide new features that satisfy consumer demands. It should be mentioned that rough regulations which exceed standards will give the companies the ability to develop products and services that will be seen valuable in the global markets. Third, the government should support goals that lead to continuous investments. The