Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has received the Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Maxim Parshin, who is visiting Cairo heading a trade mission in telecommunication technologies, digital solutions, and cybersecurity.
The meeting dealt with the investment opportunities in the Egyptian ICT sector and the ways to enhance co-operation between the two countries in related fields, especially building digital capacity and providing technological solutions.
During the meeting, Talaat underlined that Egypt and Russia have strong ties at the political and economic levels. He pointed out the efforts exerted to strengthen the bilateral relations in ICT. Talaat also reviewed Digital Egypt strategy, which aims to achieve the transformation into an integrated digital society, based on three main pillars: digital transformation, digital skills, and digital innovation.
Talaat said that Egypt focuses on investing in human capital, qualifying young people to fill in-demand jobs in local and international labour markets. He added that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is following a pyramid-shaped approach for capacity building to upskill the different segments of the society in various ICT domains.
Talaat said that he looks forward for collaboration with the top Russian ICT universities such as Lomonosov Moscow State University.
Furthermore, Talaat referred to the visit of Rus High Tech Export CEO and former minister of digital development, communications and mass media of the Russian Federation Konstantin Noskov, to Egypt in 2019, heading a delegation of public and private sectors’ officials. During the visit, a matchmaking event was organised, bringing Egyptian and Russian companies together. For his part, Parshin stressed that his country has 20 years of experience in digitisation and is the world’s top country in the field of cybersecurity. He added that there are about 50,000 Russian companies specialising in IT. Parshin also said that Egypt is a strategic partner, commending its initiatives and projects to achieve the digital transformation as well as its major telecommunication projects in Africa.
The Russian Deputy Minister said that his country is eager to co-operate and share its expertise in areas of common interest, including developing technological solutions, indigenising Russian technology in Egypt, and producing Egyptian products with Russian technology. This is in addition to co-operating in training and capacity building through offering scholarships from Russian universities and companies, co-funding projects and co-operating in ICT-related regulatory and legislative frameworks.
The meeting was attended by the Deputy ICT Minister for Institutional Development Ghada Labib and the CEO of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) Amr Mahfouz. Parshin and his delegation visited the premises of ITIDA and Telecom Egypt. They met with officials from the two sides to discuss cooperation.
