Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dr. Tarek Kamel will leave today for the Ugandan capital of Kampala on an official two-day visit from December 15th -16th , 2010
Dr. Kamel will be leading a high-level delegation of Ministry of Communications and Information Technology leaders and a number of businessmen in a bid to confer means of boosting ties between Egypt and the Nile Basin countries in the field of information and communications technology (ICT).
This target could be achieved through putting into force Egyptian initiative for promoting ICT in the Nile Basin states. The Initiative will be implemented through the collaboration with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of International Cooperation.
The visit aims at fostering Egypt's relations with the African Continent, opening up an ongoing dialogue with the Nile Basin countries, Uganda in particular. Another purpose of the visit is to attempt to get acquainted with the problems facing the ICT sector in these countries and contribute to solving them.
The trip also seeks to reach a common view that could help realize success in Uganda’s ICT field, together with bridging the digital gap in the Basin countries and applying ICT on social and economic development.
Creating an enabling investment environment and opportunities in ICT for the Egyptian business sector are among the targets of the visit.
The Egyptian delegation includes a number of private companies, since the fields of support and partnership with the Ugandan side are not confined to technical support and training. They also include carrying out several infrastructure projects for the ICT sector there.
The Egyptian initiative for Developing the IT Society in the Nile Basin adopts various ICT-related sectors, making use of the Egypt’s expertise for establishing a regional training center in two of the Basin countries, an English-speaking one, and a French-speaking one, besides setting up prototypes of smart buildings that resemble Egypt's Smart Village.
The fields of cooperation also cover promoting investments and the regulatory environment, promoting human capabilities for frequency spectrum management and helping with the development of the regulatory and legislative frameworks of the communications regulation policies.
In this regard, Dr. Kamel will witness the signing of memorandums of understanding (MOU)s and letters of intent between the Egyptian ICT officials and their Ugandan counterparts. These agreements will focus on the following tracks:
First Track: Content Development and Cyberspace Security:
-The Nile Basin Memory Project for Documenting the Cultural and Natural Heritage via IT.
-Contributing to establishing the information security emergency center.
Second Track: Human Capacity Building:
- Specialized training programmers on wireless networking in partnership with the National Telecommunications Institute (NTI).
- Specialized training programmers on software development in partnership with the Information Technology Institute (ITI).
- Specialized training programmers on postal and social services in partnership with Egypt Post.
- Contributing to setting up a regional training center in two of the Basin countries, an English-speaking one and a French speaking one.
- Developing human capacity for frequency spectrum management and contributing to the development of the regulatory and legislative frameworks of the communications regulation policies.
Third Track: Promoting Investments:
- Contributing to building prototypes of Egypt’s Smart Village.
Fourth Track: Facilitating IT Tools:
- Contributing to setting up IT clubs and mobile internet units in villages and remote areas.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kamel and the accompanying delegation are scheduled to meet Ugandan Government officials and leaders of the Ugandan authorities in the ICT and post sectors as part of the visit.
