Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dr. Tarek Kamel inaugurated and gave the key note speech of the Global Public Policy Conference (GPPC) 2007, held from 4-6 November under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and jointly organized with the Egyptian Information Telecommunications Electronics & Software Alliance (Eitesal) of Egypt.
In his keynote speech, Kamel pointed out that "the main source of economic development depends on the spread of ICT tools in the society."
Kamel added that a major element in making use of ICT tools is through the availability of trained human resources pointing out that there is a shortage in this factor worldwide.
That is the reason, according to Kamel, why the Egyptian Government took the initiative jointly with international companies to prepare specialized programs in training and qualifying young people on ICT skills to prepare a competent pool of personnel and meet the market needs.
The minister shed light on the importance of economic reform in Egypt, the on-going growth in sectors like ICT, tourism and real estate, and the efforts exerted to improve the investment climate in the country.
Minister Kamel referred to the outstanding development witnessed by Egypt’s Investment sector, particularly Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) which has multiplied and exceeded 11 billion USD. He confirmed that the ICT sector has been witnessing consecutive successes reaching a 20% annual growth rate.
ICT, Kamel added, has been turned from a sector that receives government support to a vital one contributing to the public treasury. The ICT sector, according to Kamel, has contributed about LE 28 billion in the last two years.
In his speech, Kamel referred to the steps and procedures taken lately to build up and liberate the sector in Egypt including: the launch of international licenses for mobile companies and marine cables and the second landline license to be launched soon, adding that the necessary policies to enhance the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and information network security are underway.
Kamel stressed the significance of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in enhancing the sector, exemplifying the Arabic E-Content and Egyptian Education Initiatives as models of the deployed strategy.
Several foreign investments, Kamel noted, have been pumped into the Egyptian ICT sector as international companies from Europe, North America, India and China began investing in the country, establishing software development, technical support and technological innovation centers.
Kamel called on the attendees to take part in the upcoming international events which will be hosted in Egypt during the coming two years:
Second EUROMED Ministerial Conference on Information Society due from 26-27 February 2008, ITU TELECOM AFRICA due from 11-15 May 2008, World Economic Forum (WEF) in Sharm El-Sheikh due from 17-19 May 2008, and the International Olympiads for Informatics (IOI) due in August 2008 and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in 2009.
The Global Public Policy Conference (GPPC) is organized every two years by World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA). This year, the international event gathered about 500 senior executives, government officials and policy makers from allover the world.
