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Can Culture Have an Impact on Egypt’s Economic Development?

November 17, 2018
Cairo, Oct 15: The city of Cairo is densely packed with old residential buildings, October 15, 2014, Cairo, Egypt

With the rapid rise of economic globalisation, many scholars like Thomas Friedman in the 20th century argued that since capital can easily cross from one country to another, then economic growth and development could be easily achieved. According to this view, all that is required for a nation to economically develop is to open doors for investment and foreign trade, which are the major policies that the World Bank and IMF often propose. However, this belief became widely questioned, as many countries did not sufficiently benefit from merely the expansion of capital. As capital became highly important in modern times, it is often forgotten that human behaviour and the culture of society can greatly contribute to economic development. The definition of culture used by UNESCO “is that which offers the context, values, subjectivity, attitudes and skills on which the development process must take place”. From this perspective, therefore, culture is defined as a cognitive system of values and beliefs that help shape development. Adam Smith, who is regarded as the founder of modern capitalism, also paid attention to the role of system of values and beliefs and the basic rules of…


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