Executive summary
The study focused on the possibility of Egypt's transition to the knowledge economy after the critical role of knowledge as success factor in the achievements that have been happened in developed countries and in the so-called " Asian tigers" countries .The world bank has identified four pillars that are essential for transition to the knowledge economy ; these pillars are Education, information and communication technology infrastructure , innovation and economic and institutional regime .
The institutional regime including means of effective system of economic incentives as well as institutions that facilitates the transition of resources from less efficient ones ; is the base on which the other pillars of the knowledge economy are built .Therefore , for the society and economy to benefit from the potentials of the knowledge revolution , this requires flexible economic environment for the production and dissemination of knowledge and be able to cope with the rapid and continuous changes .
Concerning the institutional regime in Egypt ; Egypt has witnessed institutional reforms in the past two decades . However , the Egyptian economy is still suffering from distortions in the economic and institutional environments .In light of the foregoing ; the study tried to answer the following research question :- To what extent does the current institutional regime contribute to the creation of a base for the knowledge economy in Egypt ?
The study concludes a number of important results of which , the limited progress of Egypt's transition to the knowledge economy ; as the efforts made by Egypt for transition to the knowledge economy are incomplete and don't reflect a public policy as in developed countries . Also , the study found that Egypt suffers from severe deterioration in the institutional environment and the intensity of this deteriorations increased after the 25 th Jan revolution. This is Because many reasons of which the unofficial payments and the very weak independence of the judiciary system and the high government spending as well as the inefficiency of the legal framework on the settlement of disputes .
In addition , Culture including customs and traditions of the Egyptian is considered one of the most important reason for the low performance of the Egyptian economy . But , this does not means that Egypt does not has a competitive advantage in comparison to other countries ; for example the number of scientists in Egypt compared to other countries .
The study confirmed that the obstacles that facing Egypt in its way for the creation and distribution of information is considered a major cause of Egyptian failure in the transition to the knowledge economy .The study finally proposed the establishment of a national committee for the knowledge economy to unify efforts and make coordination between institutions and organizations working under the umbrella of the knowledge economy .
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