Kenyan Minister, ‘We Seek Benefit from Egyptian Experience in Establishment and Management of Smart Villages, and Rehabilitation of Calibers in ICT’

Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Mohamed Salem, received the Kenyan Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. Samuel Lesuron Poghisio.
The Kenyan minister is on a two-day visit to Cairo (March 25 & 26), heading a senior delegation of Kenyan expertise in ICT.

The visit comes upon the invitation of Dr. Salem to his Kenyan counterpart to closely observe the successful Egyptian experience, and pave the way to new prospects of cooperation between Egypt and Kenya in ICT field.

Moreover, the visit paves the way to conclude a number of agreements between the two countries in ICT sector. These agreements comprise establishing and managing Smart Villages and implementing a number of specialized ICT programs to rehabilitate Kenyan young calibers.
Among these programs, there are professional and specialized training programs aiming to meet the needs of the Kenyan government of calibers at the highest level of ICT skills.

The Kenyan delegation has reviewed with the Egyptian side the future vision of the Kenyan State towards ICT until year 2030, as well as the two countries interest in the development of outsourcing and infrastructure.

The talks also involve activating e-government and local digital content as well as prioritizing ICT status at State level to help develop infrastructure.
The Kenyan side expresses its desire for Egypt to effectively contribute in content digitization, and for the Egyptian private sector to implement various ICT projects in Kenya.

View the fact that Kenya is currently implementing “The Konza ICT Park” project in Nairobi, the Kenyan delegation has showed interest in benefiting from the Egyptian technical and consultative expertise, particularly in the field of developing technology parks.

The Kenyan delegation has also requested the transfer of the Egyptian expertise in developing outsourcing industry. Moreover, it has suggested exerting all efforts on the African level to develop infrastructure and make information more accessible. This is through implementing regional initiatives with the agreement of Egypt.

On his part, Dr. Mohamed Salem states that cooperation with African States is one of MCIT strategic priorities in the near future.

His Excellency, Dr. Salem underscores the necessity of hastening the implementation of the international cooperation pivot of this strategy.

This pivot comes in the framework of enhancing partnership initiatives with the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). It is also a practical implementation of the mechanism of the Egyptian initiative for developing the information society in the African States.

Dr. Salem emphasizes the importance of strongly directing efforts towards the African market and boosting cooperation with African States in the context of elaborating a fully integrated future ICT vision for the African continent.

These endeavors come within the framework of Egypt’s genuine interest in transferring its experience to the neighboring African countries. Egypt is also eager to help African nations achieve technological prosperity and to provide community services through the implementation of e-government mechanisms, programs as well as other sectors that Egypt excels in, for the benefit of the African citizen.

In this context, Dr. Salem denotes that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is one of the first ministries in Egypt that has exerted utmost efforts in cooperation with African States. At the end of the last year, MCIT launched the biggest Egyptian-African project for human development, training and capacity building.

The first phase of the abovementioned project comprises training of delegations from Nile Basin countries on around 50 to 60 specialized programs selected and defined by these countries according to their needs.

Around 20 trainees from each country, in 2 programs, a total of 200 trainees in the first phase, participate in this training session that lasts for 2 months. The project aims to train around 3000 specialists from the African States over a period of one year.

Mr. Poghisio praises the considerable boom achieved by the Egyptian ICT sector especially in the fields of documentation of cultural and natural heritage, frequency spectrum management and exporting IT services to foreign markets using outsourcing system.

The Kenyan Minister also commends the Egyptian ICT expectations to further enhance the digital content on Internet and other technological fields in which Egypt has recorded significant improvement, and achieved a global advanced rank.

Furthermore, Minister Poghisio adds that his visit to Egypt comes within the framework of getting to know the latest Egyptian ICT updates and discussing the means to boost mutual cooperation in line with the needs of the Kenyan community that is eager to benefit from ICT through its integration in the society, thus, meeting the aspirations of the Kenyan people.

The Kenyan delegation comprises the Kenya Yearbook Editorial Board CEO, Mr. Denis Chebitwey. The institution supervises issuing the document related to the government initiatives and accomplishments in different sectors.

The delegation also comprises the head of the State Plan 2030 to Outsourcing, Dr. Catherine Adeya-Weya, and the acting Director of Public Communications, Ms. Mary Ombara.

The program of the visit consists of a number of extensive meetings with executive leaders in Telecom Egypt, Smart Villages company, National Telecommunication Institute (NTI), Information Technology Institute (ITI), National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) and Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA).

Moreover, the Kenyan minister and the accompanying delegation have toured the Smart Village where they have observed Xceed call center, the biggest center in providing communication services in the Middle East.

They have also visited the Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) through which a comprehensive documentation of Egypt’s ancient and modern history is presented by utilizing the latest IT techniques.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Mohamed Salem, visited previously a number of African countries including Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.

These visits targeted enhancing means of cooperation and partnership, and exchanging interests and expertise among Egypt and African States. They also intended to provide necessary technical support of training and human capacity building programs, as well as high-tech expertise in the fields of outsourcing industry and IT services exports.

Dr. Salem’s visits to African countries also meant to support establishing communications infrastructure, particularly in South Sudan, to develop communication networks infrastructure, call centers, and to provide technical training and empowerment to specialized professional groups in ICT in Rwanda, Eretria and Burundi, in cooperation with the Information Technology Institute (ITI) and the National Telecommunication Institute (NTI).

Dr. Salem’s visits are to assist in creating the desired technological awakening in the neighboring African countries.

Similarly, Egypt has contributed enormously in the modernization of the Post sector in Africa through providing necessary specialized technical aid and training calibers. In addition to transferring distinguished Egyptian expertise in providing postal services and products, as well as developing and improving systems in this vital field.