ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways in which central planning may inhibit the dynamic expansion of enterprises and discusses the problem with reference to Egypt and to the importance of a diversified range of manufacturing exports for the economic future of the country. It is becoming increasingly realized that one of the most difficult problems for state policy with respect to the formation of government plans to promote economic development and to control an economy relates to the role of the enterprise in economic life. In any economy, the basic unit of industrial production is the firm or enterprise, for it is the firm that acquires the factors of production, organizes them in the productive process, designs the methods of production and the products, and usually surveys markets and arranges sales. More attention is being given to decentralization in planning and to the role of the ‘market’, since the market is an alternative method of coordinating economic activity and allocating resources.
