The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has received the Ambassador of Spain to Egypt Ramon Gil-Casares. They have discussed enhancing cooperation between Egypt and Spain in the ICT field.
The most notable areas of cooperation included attracting Spanish investors and cooperating in digital government and the electronics industry. They also discussed fostering technological innovation and implementing joint research and development (R&D) projects.
The meeting has been attended by the CEO of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) Amr Mahfouz and the General Manager of the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) in Spain Javier Ponce.
In his remarks, the ICT Minister has underlined that Egypt is keen to collaborate with Spain in ICT fields. He has said that he looked forward to exploring new areas for cooperation between the two countries in digital government and digital services since Egypt seeks to establish centers of excellence and render high-quality digital services. Additionally, Talaat has commended the Spanish experience in those areas.
An R&D center is being established in the Knowledge City in the New Administrative Capital, the ICT Minister has revealed. It will boast an electronic design center, providing a favorable environment for the design and development of electronic circuits and systems. The center will house around 40 companies specializing in that field.
Talaat has highlighted that electronics design is one of the most promising industries in Egypt, stressing his eagerness to strengthen cooperation with Spain in that field.
For his part, the Spanish ambassador has stated that his visit builds on that paid by Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez to Egypt last December, which focused on strengthening cooperation in scientific research, IT development, cybersecurity, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Gil-Casares has explained that the cooperation between the two countries over the past few years resulted in developing digital applications and establishing cooperation in scientific research in advanced technologies between the Egyptian and Spanish private sectors. Within the framework of that productive cooperation, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ITIDA and CDTI was renewed, he has added.
ITIDA CEO Amr Mahfouz has said that Egypt has a large skill pool. Every year, about 60,000 young people graduate from the Faculties of Engineering and Computers and Information and are ready to enter the labor market. Mahfouz has added that Egypt offers software services cost-competitive with those offered by countries in Eastern Europe. The country also enjoys a robust electronics design industry and a multifaceted experience in outsourcing and offshoring services.
Mahfouz has remarked that he looked forward to boosting Egyptian-Spanish cooperation in cybersecurity and new areas, in light of the MoU to be signed between ITIDA and CDTI.
Furthermore, CDTI General Manager Ponce has stressed his keenness to cooperate with Egypt in IT, electric car-related software, and cybersecurity. He has pointed out that many Spanish companies collaborated with Egyptian businesses over the past years, which has gained them extensive knowledge of the Egyptian market.
Relatedly, ITIDA has, for the second time, renewed the MoU with CDTI within the framework of the Egyptian-Spanish IT Innovation Program (ESITIP) as part of the Information Technology Academia Collaboration (ITAC) program. ESITIP enables Egyptian and Spanish companies to submit proposals to find a partner from the industry sector or academia. Proposals must receive the approval of both ITIDA and CDTI for companies to receive the fund.
A new round of ESITIP is scheduled to be announced in November, targeting funding joint R&D projects in cybersecurity, AI, electronics, and many more.
