The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat and the Hungarian Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Levente Magyar signed, today, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on boosting cooperation and investment between Egypt and Hungary in ICT areas, during the third session of the Egyptian-Hungarian ministerial joint committee on economic, scientific and technical cooperation.
 
The signing ceremony was attended by the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr— who chairs the joint ministerial committee on behalf of the Egyptian side— in the presence of the Minister of Transport Hesham Arafat, the Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ezzedine Abu Setit, and the Minister of Youth and Sports Ashraf Sobhi.
 
The third session of the joint Egyptian-Hungarian ministerial committee aims to strengthen economic relations and opening up new fields of cooperation between the two countries. Levant, the Chairman of the Committee on behalf of the Hungarian side, signed the MoU on behalf of the Hungarian Minister of Innovation and Technology.

The MoU aims to enhance cooperation between the two countries in achieving the transformation to smart government, promoting e-commerce and enhancing investments. This will be achieved through exchanging experiences on adopted policies; enhancing cooperation in the areas of broadband network development, big data centers, data security, telecommunication and wireless services; providing smart services to citizens in a number of areas such health and education; and exchanging visions and delegations of experts and technical calibers from both countries.

In his speech delivered during the meeting, Talaat highlighted the significance of cooperation with Hungary in the ICT field, in light of the growing importance of digital transformation, "digital financial inclusion" and "digital government services" which have become the key to progress for all countries of the world, referring to the need to promote partnerships between the two countries.
 
He also stated that the ICT sector has become a key tool to achieve sustainable development goals which are consistent with Egypt's Vision 2030. The sector managed to achieve rapid growth and attract many global investments through implementing a number of projects. These projects aim to create an environment conducive to technological innovation and investment, develop human capacities, implant specialized technological industries, develop and secure Egypt's ICT infrastructure and achieve digital transformation. They also aim to promote the concepts and areas of innovation and entrepreneurship, achieve social development through ICTs, and develop integrated postal services and financial inclusion.

The five-year MoU entails cooperation in human resources development, capacity building, research and development, and technology exhibitions organization.