The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat and the Governor of Port Said Adel El Ghadban have held an extensive meeting at Port Said City general bureau in the presence of senior officials from the City and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT).
They reviewed the progress achieved in the digital transformation project in Port Said; the implementation of the state asset, property, and real estate wealth system; and the procedures followed in this regard. They also discussed the implementation status of the applications of the digital system for the universal health insurance program in Port Said.
The meeting was part of the ICT Minister's visit to Port Said to open ICT and post projects. It was attended by the Deputy Minister for Administrative Development, Digital Transformation and Automation Khaled El Attar, the Chairman of the Egyptian National Post Organization (ENPO) Sherif Farouk, the Assistant Minister for Strategy and Implementation Sherine El-Guindy, and Telecom Egypt CEO and Managing Director Adel Hamed.
During the meeting, the ICT Minister underlined that Port Said is the exemplary governorate where digital transformation and Digital Egypt projects were first implemented. He added that Post Said comes to mind whenever a new automation project is proposed as part of Digital Egypt vision. Talaat said that Port Said achieved an unparalleled success in achieving digital leadership and digital transformation despite the difficulties and technical challenges that young people in the City have overcome after receiving training by MCIT. He added that the general bureau is now an exemplary model for bureaus of other governments, in adopting automation.
The Minister presented the digital transformation projects carried out in Port Said, in areas including the universal health insurance system; the automation of the state property management system to maximize the economic benefits of those assets; and the governance of the real estate wealth system, where geodatabases are linked to text databases and corrected to help automate the real estate licensing system, thus making Port Said a model that other governorates follow in applying such system.
Port Said Governor thanked the ICT Minister for his great efforts in digitizing all government services in the City, and for his decision to install fiber optic cables in Al-Rehab and Mohamed Mahran areas in Port Said. He added that citizens of Port Said are happy with the automation process, which brought them closer to services.
During the meeting, a documentary film of several achievements made in Port Said was screened, as achievements were made in areas including ICT, cybersecurity, and post offices development. In addition, Talaat listened to a presentation on the City’s electronic public services, e-payment methods, e-receipts, the automation of the general bureau, the establishment of an electronic system of interconnected applications for beach access and housing, and the automation of state-owned asset management system as well as the single real estate ID number.
In this regard, the Minister called for supporting Port Said in developing its website and training employees on the latest technologies. He stressed that MCIT provides unlimited technical training for youth and workers in all governorates, adding that the success of projects is measured with the services provided to citizens. Talaat also highlighted that Port Said was the first to come to mind when MCIT decided to automate the state asset management system.
At the end of the meeting, Port Said Governor honored the ICT Minister for his efforts in automating services in the City. For his part, Talaat presented to El Ghadban an honorary shield bearing MCIT logo. They opened and inspected several ICT and post projects, in the presence of senior officials from Port Said, MCIT, Telecom Egypt and ENPO.
Talaat and El Ghadban started their tour by visiting the School of Intellectual Education in Port Fouad, where MCIT had previously made available some technological programs and supported the development of its technological capabilities to facilitate the access of students with intellectual disabilities to education and raise their abilities. During the tour, the School was supplied with computers, a printer, and a scanner to facilitate students’ access to education and training. The ICT Minister and Port Said Governor were received by the Chairman of the National Academy of Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities (NAID) AbdEl-Monem El-Sharkawy and officials from the Ministry of Education and Technical Education in Port Said and from the School.
The visit comes within the framework of presidential directives and MCIT plan to support PwDs education. MCIT and the Ministry of Education have previously cooperated in a project to develop PwDs education; the first phase of the project included supporting 810 special education schools and training nearly 30,000 teachers. Moreover, a July 2021 cooperation protocol is being implemented to complete the project and develop educational inputs to improve the quality of services provided to students with disabilities. The new phase of the project targets training 100,000 teachers and qualifying 1,600 schools, at an estimated cost of EGP 150 million, to be borne by MCIT.
During the tour, the ICT Minister watched a technical presentation delivered by some of the school's students on the educational activities they carry out to develop their skills and abilities, especially by using technological means. Talaat also listened to some specialists, who talked about the important role of technology in facilitating education for students with intellectual disabilities and made some demands. Talaat called for catering to the needs of students and educators by supplying an interactive whiteboard and advanced programs to facilitate education for people with intellectual disabilities and providing high-speed Internet connection to the school.
