Egypt’s ICT sector expects 13% growth in 2016; former minister says

Egyptian ICT sector is expected to achieve a growth rate of 13 percent in 2016, former communications minister Khaled Negm stated Wednesday.

Negm said the parliament should prioritise the communications sector’s legislations, mainly the new communications law, the law combating IT crimes, in addition to laws guaranteeing transparency and access to information.

He further called to activate the role of High Council for Cyber-Security to help in securing the information of all institutions and governmental bodies, especially the banking sector.

Negm also believes the Ministry of Communications will play a major role in building the infrastructure of the Digital Government and integrating the different databases such as those of the Civil Registry, the Ministry of Social Solidarity, Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), the Ministry of Supply, and the Ministry of Petroleum.

This comes in addition to its role in providing digital services to citizens, whether directly from the government or through the solutions offered by the private companies to the government, using the cloud computing technology that is set to be launched soon.

Negm also believes completing the technological projects that were announced during the Egypt Economic Development Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh last March will contribute to pushing the sector’s growth. These projects include mechanising the offices of Commercial Registry affiliated to the Ministry of Supply, the Notary Offices affiliated to the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Electricity’s project for installing smart electricity metres.

He called for the promotion and focus on the electronic circuits design industry, in which Egypt has shown a positive performance on the global level. It is a promising industry that can attract foreign investments. However it required the training of the human resources available in the Egyptian market.

On the other hand, he criticised the strategy of launching technology zones, saying they are not economically feasible in the present time. He demonstrated this by saying that 50% of the Smart Village is vacant, as well as 65% of the Technology Zone in Maadi.

The revenues from the ICT sector amounted to EGP 66bn in 2014, EGP 48bn of which were from communications business, EGP 12bn from IT, and EGP 6bn from electronics.

Source: Daily News Egypt