The head of Alexandria Chamber of Commerce Ahmed El-Wakeel pointed out that “the entire business sector, especially its intermediary institutions such as the Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the unions of business owners, is extremely concerned about the social and economic impacts due to the Corona virus crisis.”
El-Wakeel’s speech came during the virtual seminar organized by the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce in, through Zoom application under the title “A Different Economy in a Different World”, where he pointed out that “companies are working now under difficult circumstances, which we do not know when they will end and what it would create as new challenges, and which new economic and commercial environment would likely change the parameters of the past."
In turn, the Secretary General of the Union of Arab Chambers, Dr. Khaled Hanafy, spoke at the webinar and indicated at the beginning of his speech that "it is not new for the Alexandria Chamber to address important issues, it has been always a forerunner in discussing topical issues with experts in various fields."
Hanafy talked about the development of economic thought since the first and second industrial revolution to the third industrial revolution, and today to the fourth industrial revolution, saying that "there are changes in the economy that occurred during those periods, considering that any change in social or political conditions, or even changes to technological levels often lead to economic changes," explaining that "the biggest challenge today is focused on determining the mechanisms of production efficiency," noting that "what is required is to keep pace with change as the robot controls today in the reality of work rather than the human element, and the participatory economy has become strongly dominant. On the nature of the global economy, as cryptocurrencies have appeared and those currencies have begun to increase and increase in value, and have begun to be recognized by some countries, which are based on a different technology, and it may happen in the near future that a currency of those cryptocurrencies become the international currency and may replace the dollar, The use of these currencies may lead to major changes in economic conditions, and the value at the present time comes from knowing how to convert to accommodate that the current situation is different, and business and economic management will be done in a different way, where the reliance is now entirely on new technology and digitization."
Dr. Hanafy considered that "it is necessary to get prepared for the post-crisis period, and invest in the appropriate sectors for the new expected economy, and it is imperative for small and medium enterprises to open more and communicate with each other to form an economic bloc, capable of carrying out negotiations, benefiting from the collected products, and using participatory economics tools."
For his part, Dr. Sherif Delawar, the Economic thinker and writer, stressed that "there is a new world order and a new economic system coming and expected from past years, and thus the Coronavirus crisis did not create a new system, but rather led to a rapid transformation towards this new system," considering that “the most dangerous thing due to the Corona crisis is the increase in the poverty and unemployment rate. The World Bank issued recently a report, in which it indicated that what is happening is the largest contraction of the average income per capita in 150 years,” explaining that “increasing the poverty and unemployment rate will lead to creating gaps between countries and fear of its effects in the future," pointing out that "there are opportunities for small and medium enterprises, as they are currently able to innovate, create new applications, and use technology."
