The Software Engineering Competence Center (SECC)-affiliated to the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA)-launched the fourth round of the “Activating the Egyptian Product Development for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs)” program on April 26 with a budget of 20 million Egyptian pounds.
Starting in 2012, the program aims to support and promote companies to develop innovative products and services to be able to compete in local and regional markets and to provide products—among comprehensive innovative solutions for government bodies-to offer better services for citizens.
ITIDA Vice Chairman and SECC Chairman Hossam Osman has said that the new round stipulates the applicant MSEs must target a government entity as a client.
The center will contribute, with the support of the Information Infrastructure sector at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), at offering networking opportunities to open cooperation channels between enterprises and government entities.
He has added that applicant MSEs will be responsible for the product deployment, as a comprehensive solution at the premises of the government’s entity.
Each company will be responsible for ensuring the success of the complete solution including developed product, hardware required to deploy the product and the software licenses, in line with the agreement between the enterprise and the government entity. Moreover, the enterprise shall provide a guarantee of three months starting the acceptance date of the solution.
Terms and conditions to apply include that the company must be Egyptian, work in the field of communications and information technology, registered in ITIDA database and with a commercial register before 1 January 2013.
Additionally, the number of employees in a company must not exceed 49 and its last annual income should be less than 10 million Egyptian pounds. Only one product can be submitted per company in order to provide a 150 thousand Egyptian pounds of subsidy. Deadline for receiving application forms is 14 June 2015 and the inquiry session is to be held on May 4.
