Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dr. Tarek Kamel witnessed today the signing of a number of cooperation protocols between Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) on one hand and the General Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce and Alexandria Chamber of Commerce on the other.
The agreements aim to develop business activities via the use of IT tools in order to boost trade relations between Egypt and the African countries.
The agreements were signed on the sidelines of the 2nd Meeting of the Computer Companies in Egypt.
Over 300 local and international companies took part in the meeting held under the slogan “the Strategic Transformation of the Computer Market in Egypt” in the coming phase.
The meeting was attended by Mr. Ahmed El-Wakil, Head of the General Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, Mr. Khalil Hassan Khalil, Head of the Federation’s IT Division and a number of information and communication technology (ICT) leaders, others from the federation and the IT Division and heads of commerce chambers and local and international member division companies.
Dr. Kamel stated that signing these protocols echoes the continuation of the distinguished cooperation with Ministry of Trade and Industry and its affiliated authorities through carrying out a number of specialized technological projects.
Dr. Kamel added that such projects reflect the MCIT’s keenness to support and invest in ICT in order to raise the competence of the trade sector, develop the competence of the trade sector’s human capital and enhance the quality of services offered at the commerce chambers and its affiliated entities.
According to Dr. Kamel, these projects, carried out in cooperation with Ministry of Trade and Industry, will also effectively contribute to boosting Egypt’s national income.
Signing these protocols goes in line with the ongoing fruitful cooperation between MCIT and Ministry of Trade and Industry with all their entities and authorities to help build up the internal trade infrastructure via the dissemination of the latest technological systems within the business system.
In his speech before the meeting, Mr. Khalil reviewed the activities of last year’s gathering, its main recommendations and how to relate the two and the output of last year.
Mr. Khalil also presented the challenges and new aspects that the Egyptian computer market and companies are likely to encounter in the next five years like cloud computing, digital TV and other variables that need to be prepared starting from now.
He added that the meeting this year will present the results of the strategic study of the computer market in Egypt conducted by Cairo University in cooperation with the University of Georgia.
According to Mr. Khalil, the study aimed to identify several key results and information that will benefit Egypt in the coming phase and help find the appropriate solutions enabling computer companies to go on.
The first protocol signed between MCIT and the general federation includes two projects. The first project has to do with the automation of the process of issuing licenses of trade and industrial stores at the Egyptian commerce chambers. The project will be applied in six commerce chambers that will be decided by the general federation.
The project aims at facilitating the acquisition of these licenses and other related ones through establishing an office for this purpose at the commerce chambers to be later determined as a first step. The issuance process will be automated at these chambers, which will also be equipped with the required technological infrastructure.
The second project focuses on establishing the online portal of the Union of African Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Professions.
The project will work on raising the competitive edge of the companies operating in the African market as well as contributing to opening a communication channel among the African union and the foreign unions.
The project will further offer a high-quality website that electronically showcases services and products in the African continent through building and developing the union’s portal.
The portal will also encompass an online forum for offering information, exchanging ideas, taking part in formulating policies on the African level, extracting the information and economic indicators of interest to decision makers in the different African countries as well as preparing the required technological infrastructure for the online portal.
The second protocol signed between the MCIT and the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce acts as a continuation of the support offered to the Tradesmen Academy at the Commerce Chamber.
First deputy to minister of Communications and IT Dr. Hoda Baraka and Mr. El-Wakil signed the two protocol agreements.
In another development, Dr. Kamel witnessed the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Mr. El-Kady and Mr. Khalil.
The 18-month agreement dictates that ITIDA will support the both institutional foundation of the division and a public awareness raising campaign of ICT in the different governorates.
ITIDA will also support the annual meeting the division holds at the Smart Village as well as the skill development of the division’s members.
Moreover, ITIDA will help develop the basic and advanced skills of the human capital at computer companies that are division members as well as support the expeditions sent by the member companies to get acquainted with the latest developments in the international computer markets.
Such expeditions aim at raising the awareness of the member companies so as to quickly update their products and in turn continue competing in view of the novel technological variables in the global markets.
The cooperation between the MCIT and the federation and the Alex chamber first started in 2001 by the IT club project established at the chamber as well as offering the ICDL certification.
The collaboration also entailed the implementation of the information network of the chamber and its general federation in 2005.
The cooperation continued to include the implementation of the first phase of projects that develops trade activities at the Alex chamber via the use of ICT including: transferring communication centers into social service centers, establishing a geographic information system unit, building the skills of retail tradesmen and SMEs and disseminating the applications of the information network of commerce chambers at the chambers’ new locations.
The main purpose of these projects is to support the trade activities at the Alex chamber via the use of ICT tools.
