Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Tarek Kamel witnessed today announcing the IT companies participating in " Export IT " program this year for supporting Egyptian exports of IT products and services, led by Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA).
The program, targeting small-and medium-sized companies, enrolls 58 companies, by supporting 10 % of its added value total exports of products and services, as part of the incentives and benefits provided by Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) to IT companies to increase its exports.
Dr. Kamel declared that this program supports 10 % of the added value achieved by the company, reflecting its creativity, effort and human capacity efforts indulged in exporting process. The program, according to the minister, motivates companies to increase their exports, stressing creativity and innovation as important pillars. " Export IT " program is one of the motivations provided by ITIDA to companies to achieve a double-digit growth to their exports, hitting USD 2 billion by the end of 2013.
According to the data provided by the participating companies, technical support and engineering consultancy, are on top of the list of exported services by 33.55% of total exports, and provided by 17 companies among the 58 participating companies. Software development services comes in the second position by 27.95%, and provided by 23 companies. Among the companies, two communication centers are enlisted, providing 25.06 % of the total percentage of exports, achieving third position.
IT-based services achieved fourth position, by three companies. Website development and its technical support, provided by 16 companies, achieved 5th position, as well as companies providing application development, provided by 13 companies.
It was clear from data analysis that export revenues for 27 Egyptian companies for Europe constitutes the biggest part of the revenues of the 58 companies, achieving 31.63%. Exports to the gulf areas and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia achieved second position by 28.05 % through 43 companies, then North Africa by 19.76% through 10 companies. Asia has assumed fourth position by 7.81% through 10 companies, and North America by 6.69 through 3 companies benefiting from the direct support.
As for countries achieving biggest export revenues for all the Egyptian companies together, Libya comes on top of the list containing 61 countries. The total export revenues of 8 Egyptian companies to Libya was 17.75. Ireland assumes the second position, as 5 of the companies exported about 12.52% of total exports to it. KSA assumes the third position as 24 companies exported about 9.85% of total revenues to it. UAE assumes the fourth position in the list as it constitutes 8.39 of total export revenues by 29 companies.
Data analysis also revealed that exports revenues for about 12 companies to the United Kingdom constituted 3.56% of total export revenues, 8 Egyptian companies, export to Germany achieving 3.34% of total revenues, and 21 companies export 3.03% to the united states.
CEO of Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), Dr. Hazem Abdelazim stressed the fact that the selection process for the companies and deciding its capacity to join the program involved investigation phase for all the companies documents and applications. He also pointed out that the support rate for company exports was set by a number of experts, after checking and investigating company data and making sure that they meet terms and conditions announced by ITIDA to participate in the program.
"Export IT" Program launched by ITIDA last year is the outcome of direct discussions with companies to define their needs and requirements, which resulted in setting this program as a priority for the current phase.
It is worth mentioning that "Export IT" does not limit the number of the participating countries. It is open for all companies provided that the Egyptian partner is 50 % at least of the capital, and the company headquarter in Egypt, and 80 % of workers at least are in Egypt. Also the company must be registered in the database of the IT companies available on ITIDA website.
About ITIDA
Located in the heart of modern business environment at the Smart Village, The Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) is a governmental entity spearheading the development of the Egyptian IT sector and increasing its global competitiveness. ITIDA, an affiliate of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), is tasked with the focal role in the developing the IT industry through identifying the needs of the local industry and addressing them with tailored programs. The agency is considered to be a one-stop-shop for foreign investors and a strategic advisor to Multi-National Companies (MNCs) investing in the Egyptian IT sector. It further plays a leading role in enhancing the Egyptian cyber security and data protection framework towards a more secure e-Business and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services positioning.
