The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat met, today, via videoconference, with various heads and representatives of major French technology companies and business institutions members of the Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF).
The meeting highlighted the investment opportunities and the strategies launched to develop the Egyptian ICT sector as well as the efforts made to provide facilities and incentives to foreign companies, to foster investment, with focus on offshoring services.
The Egyptian Ambassador to France Alaa Youssef attended the meeting. It was organized by the Egyptian Commercial Services (ECS) in Paris, in coordination with MEDEF, and moderated by MEDEF Managing Director Philippe Gautier.
Moreover, the CEO of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) Amr Mahfouz, the General Manager of Atos Egypt Ahmad Elharany, and the General Manager of Valeo Technical Center Cairo Tamer Aly attended the meeting. Atos and Valeo are successful models of French companies that invested in the Egyptian ICT sector.
During the meeting, the ICT Minister highlighted that Egypt has a strategic plan to develop all sectors. He underlined the vital role of the ICT sector in implementing Digital Egypt strategy, which is aimed at building a digital society to harness technology to improve government performance and provide digital services to citizens. This is in addition to upskilling youth and enhancing their competitive capabilities to meet the requirements of the local and global labor market.
The ICT Minister pointed out that the ICT sector has been the highest growing state sector for four years. He noted that the President of the Republic had recently witnessed the opening of more than 20 of "Digital Egypt" projects.
Talaat indicated that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is redeveloping the Egyptian government’s applications through the Ahmos project at a budget of more than EGP two billion. Moreover, he expressed his aspiration for Egyptian-French cooperation in implementing this project.
Talaat explained that many French companies working in offshoring have achieved success stories in Egypt by benefiting from the Egyptian talent pool that excels at linguistic and digital skills. He added that MCIT has multiplied the training budget 22 times within three years. During the current fiscal year, MCIT targets training 225,000 young people at investments of EGP 1.3 billion.
The ICT Minister highlighted that MCIT has established Egypt University of Informatics (EUI) in the Knowledge City in the New Administrative Capital. EUI is the first university specializing in ICT and related fields in Africa. He referred to MCIT efforts to support the entrepreneurship and startups ecosystem in Egypt and Africa. To achieve this goal, eight CREATIVA Innovation Hubs were established in different governorates. He added that 19 new Hubs are currently being established, with the aim to reach 30 Hubs nationwide.
Talaat showcased the efforts made to build a robust ICT infrastructure with investments of EGP 60 billion to implement the first phase of boosting Internet speed project, while investments of EGP 40 billion have been made to implement the second phase of the project. Currently, the project of installing fiber-optic cables to provide high-speed Internet services to more than 3.5 million homes is being implemented within the Decent Life initiative. The project investments amount to EGP 40 billion.
For his part, the Egyptian Ambassador to France underlined the strong and solid ties between Egypt and France. The two countries are currently collaborating in the ICT industry. Establishing strategic partnerships is significant to advance these ties and achieve a high-value return, the Ambassador pointed out.
During the meeting, Mahfouz reviewed the pillars of Digital Egypt Strategy for Offshoring Industry 2022-2026. The Strategy provides investment incentives for global and local companies to increase competitiveness of the offshoring industry in Egypt by studying the requirements of the global market. The Strategy is also aimed to triple the exports of tech-enabled offshoring products and services and provide new incentives to attract more investments. This is in addition to boosting the country’s competitiveness in research and development (R&D) and value-added services to drive the growth of the knowledge economy.
Gautier declared that MEDEF has been carrying its business for 32 years. It has been cooperating with Egypt for several years through the Egyptian Embassy in France. He noted that MEDEF has 15 member companies specializing in digital services, underlining that Digital Egypt Strategy for Offshoring Industry 2022-2026 offers great opportunities for cooperation.
Elharany explained Atos’ interest in investing and operating in Egypt as a result of the discussions held during the meeting of the ICT Minister with MEDEF in France in 2020. Atos intends to expand its business and increase its workforce in Egypt, which reaches about 400 specialists.
For his part, Aly indicated that Valeo has been conducting its business in Egypt for 17 years in automotive programming. Valeo’s Technical Center achieved global successes, which resulted in an increasing demand from global automotive producers to carry out their business at Valeo premises in Egypt.
During the meeting, officials of the two companies commended MCIT efforts in introducing the data center and cloud computing industry in Egypt and developing the ICT infrastructure.
