Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Egypt wins international award for advancing competition policies in the education sector
The World Bank and the International Competition Network have awarded Egypt—represented by the Egyptian Competition Authority—the prestigious first prize for "Promoting Competition Policies 2025" in recognition of its efforts to enhance competition in the education sector.
Dr. Mahmoud Momtaz, Chairperson of the Egyptian Competition Authority, received the award during his participation in the 24th Annual Conference of the International Competition Network, held in the United Kingdom.
This international recognition comes as a result of the Authority’s comprehensive national initiative to integrate competition principles into the education sector, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. The initiative addressed several areas, including the printing and distribution of textbooks, foreign educational materials, supplementary books, as well as school uniforms.
Key reforms tackled harmful practices such as collusion among distributors to fix prices, agreements between printing houses to set textbook printing costs, and exclusive contracts for school uniforms. As a result, profit margins on international and supplementary textbooks and school uniforms have been reduced, easing costs for families and supporting government spending. The reforms are expected to increase the number of suppliers for school uniforms—promoting competitiveness and job creation in this vital sector.
Dr. Momtaz expressed his delight, stating that this award represents further international recognition of Egypt’s tangible progress in implementing effective competition policies, particularly in education. He thanked his team's efforts, as well as ongoing support from Egyptian state institutions, underlining that this achievement motivates further work to advance competition policies in support of Egypt’s Vision 2030 for a competitive and sustainable economy that safeguards citizens’ rights.
This is the fifth time in the past four years that the Egyptian Competition Authority has received a prize from the World Bank and the International Competition Network. Previous awards recognized Egypt’s responses to market challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, successful crisis-management strategies, the launch of the National Strategy for Competition and Competitive Neutrality, and the creation of an "Arab Competition Authority Simulation Model" during Egypt’s presidency of the Arab Competition Network.