Investor interest is in place.

In the MENA region health and education come first on the list. I don't think the problem comes with investor interest. It comes with providing proper vehicles that can grow over time and reach the potential investors are looking for.

If you don't have a proper corporate system – with shareholders, boards that are accountable; management that is in place – you get the sense of a relaxed performance, and relaxed performance cannot take this country anywhere.

Every year there are new students coming in. They need schools, they need quality education.

Egypt really needs corporates to constantly try to work, improving their management style, their access, their accountability, and creating this blend in which they, as much as possible, keep quality and introduce this onto a large scale.

It is our own national understanding that R&D is at a minimal stage currently, and the universities are at the heart of this discussion.

The good news also is that it's coming a lot from the students. For example, what they’re doing at university [Badr University in Cairo] is they come in with their own ideas, with their own components. They search the internet, they find all sorts of innovative materials.

I think Egypt is going to be in a very different place in the next five years in terms of innovation.

I’ll give you an example, in this university we’ve launched our first faculty on arts, cinema, ballet and theatre. And we're seeing a huge demand from students now coming in, because Egypt had a huge heritage in this sector.

Over the past 20, 30 years there's a lot of tech advancement within the sector, and you can see people produce movies with a mobile phone.

There are a lot of technicalities, and there is a lot of need for getting educated on the latest trends.

On the med sector now we're seeing a lot of focus in terms of what you call alternative medicine.

These are not names that you'd hear in Egyptian higher education five, six years ago, or even 10 years ago, but now a lot of students are coming and asking for it.

The biggest step that needs to be taken – I think Egypt has already taken the step – is realising that normative education is dead. I mean the amount of people that need to be educated, and re-educated over a much shorter period of time, is increasing extensively.

Within the next 10 to 15 years people around this world will need to get re-education on a specific subject matter, probably every three years.

People are realising that. The way I was educated 10, 15 years ago does not suit my children, and it will not suit them going forward.

Technology is going to be the cornerstone.

There are two sides of this coin. You have to understand the digital world we are living in.

So I think the laptop is a means to really teach students how to access knowledge.

Because, knowledge is at the palm of your hands now.

I see teachers transforming into facilitators within the coming years.

There is no longer the teacher you saw years ago, when he stands there and it becomes the main source of information.

They need to be able to work and focus on the student's skill and ability to access – rather than provide them – first-hand knowledge.

How to ensure that students can get the necessary human skills for engagement, for social performance, for working in teams and with others?

It's a challenge we're all working on now.

When there's a demand, when there's awareness, there's going to be change.

And I think this is exactly what's happening in Egypt now.

Five years down the line you're going to see change in this country.

The size of the private sector is going to expand at least by a single digit within the next five years.

No longer are we going to have a Cairo-focused country.

There is a lot of movement, both private and public, towards seeing quality education provision happening outside of Cairo.

This is also going to change the job market because you're going to see development all over the country.