The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has met with the Hungarian Ambassador to Egypt András Kovács. They discussed enhancing cooperation between Egypt and Hungary in ICTs, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI), data science, capacity building, innovation, entrepreneurship, applied research and cybersecurity.

Talaat welcomed the cooperation with the Hungarian side in relevant areas, and commended the Hungarian efforts to advance the ICT sector and achieve digital transformation in all the State sectors. He presented the major projects implemented in collaboration between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and all the State agencies and institutions to build Digital Egypt and capitalize on ICT to enable all sectors to provide excellent government services.

The ICT Minister added that a specialized university in ICT is being established at the Knowledge City in the New Administrative Capital, with admission to open soon for the next academic year.

Moreover, Talaat stressed MCIT keenness to support technological innovation through launching the Applied Innovation Center (AIC) that aims to use emerging technologies to tackle economic and societal challenges. This is in addition to establishing the National Academy of Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities (NAID), targeting harnessing Assistive Technology (AT) to serve Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).

During the meeting, the ICT Minister extended an invitation to his Hungarian counterpart, through the Hungarian Ambassador, to visit Cairo to explore the Egyptian ICT experience closely and discuss enhancing cooperation.

For his part, Kovács highlighted his country’s successful achievements in digitization, especially in the tax system, which has proven its efficiency for both the State and the citizen. He referred to the competitive advantage that Hungary has in the automotive industry, investing in Research and Development (R&D) in this industry. Hungary is also seen as a regional hub in Europe for testing smart cars, a large industry that attracts investment funds in Hungary, he added.

At the end of the meeting, the Hungarian Ambassador invited the ICT Minister to visit Hungary to closely explore its ICT experience, and visit Zalazone, an innovation and R&D hub in Hungary.