Hatem Zaki, secretary general at the World Franchise Council revealed that Egypt will be elected today to the Council’s presidency for the second time for another two years.
During the Franchising and Sustainable Development conference held on Saturday, Zaki told Daily News that Egypt will win because no other candidate ran for the presidency.
Under the patronage of Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly, the16th International Exhibition of Franchise kicks off on Saturday for three days with participation of 46 franchise unions, comprises of 43 countries as well as the EU, the Asian Pacific Federation, and the Ibero-American Franchise.
Zaki added that Egypt will host the meetings of World Franchise Council for the second time with the participation of 34 countries, whereas the first time was in 2007 with the participation of only 12 countries.
He pointed out that Egypt joined the council in 2005, and last year Egypt helped the UAE to join the council, and currently the council is open for new countries.
The franchise exhibition is being held for the first time after 25 January uprising in 2011 and reflects the trust of these companies in the Egyptian economy, indicated Zaki.
“In 1970 the first franchise was launched in Egypt and now we are 60,000 franchise shops,” he pointed out. “The World Franchise Council was established in 1994 to raise awareness and promote the franchise system globally, and to facilitate best practices in the management of franchise associations among its members.”
He elaborated that the council also aims to encourage and motivate countries that do not have franchise associations to establish them.
For his part, Moataz Al Afi, honorary chairman and founder of Egyptian Franchise Development Association (EFDA) said that this year’s franchise exhibition is exceptional. The exhibition coincides with the meetings of the World Franchises Council with all its representatives, giving opportunities not only in terms of the number of exhibitors and diverse investment opportunities, but also for the exchange of experiences at the level of countries. In addition, countries will benefit from the experiences of the franchise unions around the world.
He pointed out the interest of the EFDA this year is in promoting another kind of franchise, namely the Social Franchise, which aims to apply commercial franchise principles to achieve social benefits rather than individual profits.
The conference will discuss how to integrate a social objective into a profitable economic model, as a means to enable social projects to create more employment opportunities for marginalised segments, and achieve development goals through the private sector, which provides deprived areas with services and goods at affordable prices.
“Awareness of the advantages of existing franchise projects has increased in the local market, which is a huge market with a population of 100 million, which is served by a large network of chains with total direct investments in franchises estimated at EGP 80bn,” he elaborated, continuing “In addition, the number of franchising systems operating in Egypt exceeds 800 systems between international and local systems, the number of outlets exceeds 60,000 shops competing together for annual sales estimated at EGP 14bn, and providing about 900,000 direct jobs and 1.6m indirect jobs in feeder industries, which was specifically designed to serve these activities, with direct investments of these companies estimated at about EGP 90bn.”
Tarek Tawfik, chairperson of EFDA said, “The continued success of the association’s exhibitions annually confirms the wide confidence in the franchise system in Egypt, the continuous increase in the number of projects and the volume of investments under the franchise system.”
The importance of the conference and the expansion of the culture of investment through the franchise is in line with the recent trend of Egypt’s vision to open new horizons to achieve growth and provide opportunities for young people through small and medium enterprises, especially since franchises are a successful model in this framework with less risk, declared Tawfik.
Meanwhile, El Sayed Torky, senior advisor at EFDA, noted that according to the latest survey conducted by the World Franchise Council among its member countries on the economic impact around the world, the council gathers 40,000 international brands operating under its system about 2.6m two-units or shops around the world, producing about 2.7% of the world’s GDP, with about 29 million employees.
