The Covid-19 pandemic has speeded up efforts for digitisation, a senior official said Tuesday.
Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development Ahmed Kamali called on African countries to invest more in the digital transformation.
Kamali, who represented Egypt at the video-conference ‘Industrialising in the digital age: Key results and views of the Industrial. Development Report 2020’, said digital transformation in Africa is now urgent.
Kamali said Egypt is eager to digitize in all fields as technology is in high demand in all sectors.
In its bid to become a technology producer, instead of a consumer, Egypt is focusing on making digital and information technology, he said, adding that this country has nine technology universities.
The communications and IT sector in Egypt has witnessed double growth over the past three years as public spending on the sector accounts for 6.5 percent of total investment in Egypt, he said.
Foreign direct investment in the sector was 3.7 percent of the total for fiscal year 2019-2020, the official said, pointing out the government’s interest in the digital transformation of education and social protection programme by promoting pre-university learning to mainly depend on IT and creative thinking.
The pandemic made us aware of the importance of digitalisation, he said, warning against the digital divide at home and abroad.
