The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has witnessed the signing of a cooperation agreement between Nile Online and the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) during his visit to Dubai to participate in Expo 2020.
ITIDA CEO Amr Mahfouz and Nile Online Executive President Khaled Hegazy signed the agreement, in the presence of Etisalat Misr Chairman Gamal El Sadat and CEO Hazem Metwally.
According to the agreement, Nile Online, a subsidiary of Etisalat Misr, will expand its business in Egypt through providing call center and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services, including technical support, sales, debt collection, and other services, to its clients around the world, including in the US, Gulf countries, European countries, and Australia. ITIDA and Nile Online will cooperate to train and employ at least 2,100 young Egyptians over three years.
Mahfouz said that the agreement is part of ITIDA efforts to attract and encourage companies specializing in BPO and IT services to invest and expand in Egypt to create more job opportunities and boost the Egyptian exports of those services. This will strengthen Egypt’s global position as a hub for BPO and offshore services. He added that Egypt is an attractive destination where international companies can establish specialized centers to serve their clients in different parts of the world.
For his part, Hegazy said that Nile Online believes that Egypt can compete in the global BPO market and have a positive impact on the Egyptian economy. He added that the cooperation with ITIDA enhances and strengthens that vision as the Agency will support the company’s BPO services throughout the agreement. Hegazy also said that his company has an ambitious plan to train and employ nearly 2,000 Egyptian people by 2023. He highlighted that the basis of financial incentives lies not only in employment but also in training and upskilling young Egyptians to keep up with the latest technologies to boost the competitive edge of Egyptian ICT services and products.
The ICT Minister also met with the Regional Manager at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ajay Singh to discuss cooperation in IT, digital transformation and BPO in Egypt.
During the meeting, Talaat explained the facilities and incentives that Egypt provides to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), such as incentives and logistic support provided by ITIDA. He pointed out the efforts of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) to boost the BPO industry in Egypt, most notably through creating a large skill pool by carrying out a plethora of programs and initiatives to build young people’s capacity and equip them with in-demand skills to boost their competitive edge.
MCIT also carried out initiatives to empower young people to become freelancers, including Future Work is Digital (FWD), which targets training 100,000 young people as freelancers in local and global markets. In addition, the Ministry is collaborating with an international company to develop a national strategy for the period until 2026 to boost digital exports and offshore IT services, added the ICT minister.
During the meeting, the digital transformation projects implemented by MCIT in cooperation with state agencies and institutions, as part of the efforts to build Digital Egypt, were presented.
TCS is an Indian multinational IT services and consulting company, operating in 149 locations across 46 countries. It is a subsidiary of the Tata Group, India’s largest multinational business group.
The meeting was attended by Mahfouz, the Assistant ICT Minister for Strategy and Implementation Sherine El-Guindy, and ITIDA VP and Chairperson of the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC) Hossam Osman.
Furthermore, the ICT Minister met with Vice President, Middle East and Africa (MEA) at Infosys Ltd. Sriranga Sampathkumar. Infosys is a multinational IT company that provides business consulting, IT and outsourcing services, with clients in over 50 countries.
The meeting discussed Egypt’s competitive advantages and remarkable standing in the BPO and offshore services industry map. The country occupies the top spot in MEA and the 15th globally in this field, according to global indices. In addition, the value of Egypt’s digital exports was estimated at $4.5 billion in the last fiscal year.
El-Guindy and Infosys executives attended the meeting.
Talaat also met with the Managing Director, MENA at Google Lino Cattaruzzi. They discussed Google's plans and the possibility of cooperating in data centers and cloud computing.
During the meeting, the ICT Minister stressed that Egypt supports its startup ecosystem. Egyptian startups attract a large number of investments, and the ecosystem is expected to continue growing over the next five years, Talaat said. He commended Google's programs for supporting entrepreneurship and venture investment in Egyptian startups.
The meeting reviewed the efforts exerted to transform Egypt into a data center and cloud services hub, given the country’s pivotal geographical location that connects Asia and Europe and hosts a large number of subsea cables. In addition, Egypt has a robust legislative and regulatory framework, including the Personal Data Protection Law, which creates a safe environment for data traffic.
El-Guindy, the Assistant ICT Minister for Global Information Infrastructure (GII) Mohamed Nasr Eldin, and Telecom Egypt CEO and Managing Director Adel Hamed attended the meeting.
It is worth mentioning that the ICT Minister is visiting Dubai, heading a high-level delegation, to participate in the 41st edition of GITEX Global and Expo 2020. He is also holding meetings with ICT multinationals to discuss investment in the Egyptian market.
