The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Yasser ElKady has received the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) CEO Fadi Chehadé, in the presence of the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) Acting Executive President Mustafa Abdul Wahid, where they reviewed the various activities offered by the Domain Name System Entrepreneurship Center (DNS-EC) established in Egypt according to the cooperation protocol signed between NTRA and ICANN in June 2014.

During the meeting, ElKady highlighted the importance of domain names industry—an industry that witnesses a noticeable disparity between different regions of the world— as an essential part of the Internet economy in general.

He referred to the enormous potential opportunities in the regions of Africa and the Middle East for their countries are among the most key emerging markets experiencing higher Internet growth usage rates.

He also added that Egypt is keen to participate in the digital economy as a key catalyst in the development of nations and progress of its economies as well as in achieving advancement in the development rates.

Moreover, the ICT Minister has commended ICANN decision to select Egypt for establishing DNS-EC, reflecting confidence of the global Internet community in Egypt’s ICT sector capacities and the potential of Egyptian-trained calibers.

This is in addition to recognizing the role that Egypt plays in the Middle East and Africa. He also stated that Egypt realizes its full responsibility for the leading role in the field of the Internet economy in the region which prompted for the establishment of the center in collaboration with ICANN, in light of its prominent global role in this area.

DNS-EC provides many activities that support and stimulate the domain names industry in Egypt, Africa and the Middle East including building capabilities of leading calibers in technical, legal and marketing fields related to this industry.

This is achieved through providing necessary training programs, raising awareness and qualifying trainers in these areas as well as providing them with all the tools needed to develop the mechanisms necessary for supporting and promoting the industry. DNS-EC also aims to promote the sustainable development of this industry through providing technical advice to those working in this field in the region.

For his part, Chehadé expressed his delight to launch this center in Egypt. He said that ICANN is proud of this partnership with the Egyptian government and looks forward to completing the work—started  several months ago—and achieving desired goals. These goals are represented in building an industry for domain names through awareness-raising and capacity development in Egypt, the Middle East and Africa. He also said that DNS-EC is to play a leading role in developing and supporting this significant industry.

Furthermore, Abdul Wahid said that the telecommunications industry is constantly developing including  a growing role of the Internet and the domain name system (DNS). He added that NTRA gives due consideration to the field of domain names, especially in launching internationalized domain names in Arabic, such as Misr domain, which was the first Arabic domain that was registered in 2010 and managed by NTRA. Abdul Wahid also expressed NTRA interest in the role played by ICANN since its inception, which is showcased through completing the cooperation framework with ICANN by means of establishing this center and launching its activities officially.

About ICANN
ICANN's mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other.

ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination there wouldn't be one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet's unique identifiers. ICANN doesn't control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn't deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet's naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.