Egypt presents 10 IT Projects in March Economic Summit: Minister

Egypt will present around 10 projects worth more than EGP 20 billion to develop the country’s technological infrastructure at the country’s economic development conference to be held in mid March, Atef Helmy, the minister of communications said on Monday.

The projects are part of the ministry’s strategy to develop the communications strategy by the year 2020, Helmy said at a business panel hosted by the American chamber of commerce.

Egypt is holding a much-publicised economic conference in mid-March at the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh to encourage businesses to invest in an economy battered by four years of political turmoil since the popular uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Seven of the projects will be related to technology parks at a cost of EGP 15.5 billion and one project will be establishing smart metres for the ministry of justice at a cost of EGP 5 to EGP 7 billion. The other two projects remain in the ‘pipeline’ and will aim to digitise the country’s commercial registry and manufacture tablets, Helmy added.

The plan to establish technology parks for investments is expected to create 600,000 jobs. In addition, the plan will include training experts to be exported to the region.

Egypt aims to raise the information and communication technology sector contribution to the economy to 8.43 percent of GDP by the year 2020, up from 3.8 percent last year.

Source: Ahram Online