The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat and Governor of Fayoum Ahmed Al-Ansari opened today, Qalhana Post Office after developing and providing it with the latest systems and technological solutions to provide all financial, postal and governmental services to citizens, as part of a plan to develop post offices in the villages targeted within the Decent Life initiative.
 
The Chairman of the Egyptian National Post Organization Sherif Farouk has received the ICT Minister and Governor of Fayoum.
 
Qalhana Post Office is located on an area of 120 square meters and has six outlets, serving approximately 70,000 citizens.
 
The opening ceremony was held as part of the ICT Minister’s visit to Fayoum Governorate, as he opened and inspected various projects, implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) under Decent Life in the villages of Fayoum Governorate.
 
In a related context, the ICT Minister and the Governor opened Tamiya Main and El-Gon Post Offices after providing them with the latest technological systems and solutions to provide all financial, postal and governmental services to citizens.
 
Tamiya Main Post Office is located on 400 square meters, has 10 outlets serving approximately 130,000 citizens, and is equipped with an Automated Teller Machine (ATM), while El-Gon Post Office is located on 150 square meters, has 13 outlets serving approximately 65,000 citizens and is equipped with two ATMs.
 
It is noteworthy that the postal district in Fayoum has 110 post offices throughout the governorate to offer all services to citizens to the fullest.
 
Farouk indicated that the completion percentage in the plan to develop post offices nationwide has exceeded the established implementation percentage. The development of 3,345 post offices nationwide has been completed, with an achievement percentage of 80%.
 
Farouk also pointed out that Egypt Post has already started implementing a project to develop and modernize post offices nationwide according to the latest international standards in this field to improve the quality of services provided to citizens. Each citizen can obtain all postal, financial and community services decently and easily.
 
MCIT is implementing several technological projects to develop the information infrastructure and promote digital literacy in Decent Life’s villages nationwide.
 
The first phase of the Decent Life initiative includes working in parallel on four main pillars. These pillars are installing fiber optic cables to boost Internet services for about one million homes at a cost of about 5.8 billion EGP; developing about 839 post offices and 11 distribution centers and supplying post offices with ATMs; and improving the quality of telecommunication services through establishing cell sites in the villages. This is in addition to working on digital literacy and capacity building in ICT as well as digital economic empowerment for the people in the Decent Life villages.
 
During their tour in the Governorate, Talaat and Al-Ansari inspected the development work of Telecom Egypt network in the village of Qalhana at Itsa town in Fayoum Governorate, as part of the project of installing fiber optic cables in the Decent Life villages. The Managing Director and CEO of Telecom Egypt Adel Hamed and various Telecom Egypt officials in the governorate have received the ICT Minister and Governor of Fayoum.
 
The ICT Minister thanked and praised the efforts of all those engaged in the implementation of the telecom infrastructure development work. At the same time, he emphasized the need to complete all projects within the period scheduled for each project, according to the latest applicable international standards.
 
Talaat referred to the government’s vision of the significance of information infrastructure as one of the essential advantages to provide a decent life for citizens. It also represents the lifeblood of all the processes supporting a digital society, and providing services in simple, expeditious and high-quality ways.
 
Hamed stated that Telecom Egypt network was planned in the village of Qalhana to provide 1,520 lines and seven cabins. With a total of 370 boxes, Telecom Egypt store serves 217 customers in addition to eight commercial and ten government telephone boxes.
 
During their tour, Talaat and Al-Ansari attended a seminar on digital and financial literacy for citizens of the Qalhana village. This came within the framework of MCIT efforts to deploy digital awareness and achieve financial and digital inclusion for citizens in Decent Life villages.
 
The seminar witnessed a presentation of one of the attendees who benefited from MCIT training programs on her experience in dealing with the services of Digital Egypt Platform.
 
The ICT Minister explained that the pillar of digital capacity building is one of the most significant pillars of MCIT projects towards a decent life, given the significance of enabling villagers to use digital means to obtain digital government services, and to help youth to obtain training in various disciplines. He also showed appreciation to the women of Fayoum Governorate for attending the seminar and emphasized his appreciation for Egyptian women who represent the mainstay of society.
 
Talaat also inspected the Sound Training Center in Baghous, Fayoum, through which various capacity-building programs are implemented and the efficiency of digital skills is raised for students, youth, graduates, and job seekers in the governorate to eradicate digital illiteracy, develop computer skills, and use and surf social media sites and the Internet safely.
 
In a related context, the ICT Minister inspected the progress of the training process in various training centers in the governorate, through which capacity-building programs are implemented and the efficiency of digital skills is raised. This came within the framework of implementing an experimental operating model for “the beginner level of” the digital skills pillars for the people of the targeted villages in Al Hadeqah and Baghous. These students, young people, graduates, and job seekers in the governorate are listed in IC3 Spark, the digital literacy training program.
 
For her part, the Deputy ICT Minister for Institutional Development Ghada Labib indicated that the institutional development plan in Fayoum Governorate is aimed at accommodating digital transformation and automation projects. This is in addition to developing the digital capabilities of, and upskilling, citizens in the governorate.
 
Labib also explained that the Institutional Development, Training and Human Capacity Building Sector at MCIT launched numerous programs, projects, and initiatives to reach a safe and productive interactive digital society by raising the digital capabilities of specialists and non-specialists from the digital transformation units as well as citizens.