Italy’s new ambassador to Cairo Claudio Pacifico is busy preparing for the upcoming summit between President Hosni Mubarak and his Italian counterpart Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. He recently talked to journalists about Italian investors’ latest projects in Egypt. Major among these is a comprehensive programme on specialised training, which is expected to operate on three levels.
The first concerns establishing technical institutes on the model of the famous Don Bosco Institutes in Cairo and Alexandria, which have over more than half-a-century turned out some of Egypt’s best skilled workers in various fields. The number of training programmes provided by the two Don Bosco institutes are scheduled for increase, and it is planned to establish two new institutes, one in Port Said and another in a town in Upper Egypt.
Training and leather
The second level is of major significance since it concerns upgrading the level of specialisation offered to technical institutes including the Don Bosco. More important, this level does not stipulate that trainees should be university graduates, meaning that ordinary workers will be offered the opportunity to upgrade their skills—a move which the Egyptian market and work force badly need. It is planned that specialised Italian training institutes should take part in training Egyptian young people.
There is also an idea currently under investigation, Mr Pacifico said, that Egyptian young men would be offered training in Italy, especially in the fields of textile. Even if only a few hundred are trained, they could spearhead the training of thousands of Egyptians once they are back home.
The third and highest level is the aspired Egyptian-Italian University which is expected to be modelled after the technical university in Milan, which produces mechanical and textile engineers. The ambassador indicated that the education will be partly in Egypt and partly in Italy, and that the tuition fees will be modest since the Italian government is concerned with making university education affordable for Egyptians.
As for Italian investments in the Rubeiki district which is famous for leather production, they amount to some $30 million, Mr Pacifico said. It is hoped that the standard of leather production should be upgraded so as to be more competitive on the international market.
