Strategic Alliance between the German Development Co-operation and Orange with the establishment of ODC

By Hamed Mahmoud

Dr. Cyrill Jean Nunn, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Egypt and Eng. Yasser Shaker Chief Executive Officer at Orange Egypt met to kick off the Strategic Alliance between the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Orange Egypt on Digital Education and Training.

The Alliance aims at establishing Orange Digital Centre (ODC) –a state-of-the-art training hub established for demand-driven digital education trainings in Egypt. The ODC is a joint cooperation of the develoPPP.de programme, which GIZ implements on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Dr. Nunn noted that, “Contributing to Digital Egypt is a top priority on the agenda of the long-standing cooperation between Germany and Egypt. We are proud that the Alliance between GIZ and Orange helps build the future of many ambitious Egyptian youth through empowering them with needed digital skills that would enable them to find jobs and support their start-ups.”

In the same context, Eng. Shaker commented on this cooperation, saying, “We are honored to be the first mobile operator in Egypt to inaugurate a digital centre for digital education and training in Egypt, which will be a strong addition to Orange’s journey that started years ago in supporting and empowering entrepreneurs, and small emerging companies”.

Eng. Shaker also said “Today we are laying the foundation for one of the most important projects in Orange Corporate Social Responsibility history through our cooperation with “GIZ”. This cooperation is considered a new cornerstone in supporting projects and ideas of creative youth. It represents a starting point and the beginning of a new era in working with those who are passionate about their ideas and their work.”

Planned to be officially inaugurated in the second half of the year, the ODC will be offering to Egyptian youth, free trainings, coaching and mentoring services to raise their job-related digital skills and to enhance their employability, as well as to encourage their entrepreneurial readiness and abilities.

Specifically, the Orange Digital Centre brings together in one place, a coding school, a hardware fabrication lab, and a start-up accelerator, thus offering an all-inclusive set of services supporting youth and entrepreneurship from training and technological incubation to start-up support, start-up acceleration and access to investment.

This Alliance offers an innovative public-private partnership model in lieu of the Egyptian Government’s current keen and continuous efforts to build Digital Egypt under the umbrella of Egypt’s ICT 2030 strategy as well as the Sustainable Development Strategy “Egypt Vision 2030.