Biography of Communications and IT Minister Amr Talaat

His experience contributed to supporting the national agenda for digital transformation through implementing working strategies for the provision of innovative digital technologies.

In 2010, Dr. Talaat was the director general of IBM Egypt and supervised expansion plans, ensuring the creation of unique job opportunities and the establishment of centers of excellence to export digital services.

Dr. Talaat earned his Doctor of Business Administration from the University of Paris – Paris School of Business and obtained a Master of Science in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology, and holds an MBA from Paris ESLSCA Business School, France. He is a graduate of Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering.

Dr. Talaat’s most notable achievements during his tenure as Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology include end-to-end process reengineering and digitization of government workflows that culminated in the launch of the Egyptian government’s digital services portal-Digital Egypt, as a part of an omni-channel approach to delivering government services, to ensure digital and financial inclusion.

The achievements also included the promulgation of the Data Protection Law and the establishment of a National AI Council, and Digital Society Higher Council, spearheaded by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), and the launch of Egypt’s Applied Innovation Center (AIC), which utilizes High Performance Computing to advance applied AI research across sectors, including health.

The achievements also included Egypt’s prominence from category “C” in the World Bank’s GovTech Maturity Index in 2018, to Category “B” in 2020, then Category “A” in 2022.

The achievements also included complete transformation of Egypt’s national postal service with the renovation of nearly 4,000 offices nationwide, digitization of its services and logistics management systems, launching new financial products, and becoming an integral channel for the provision of Digital Egypt government services.

The achievements also included the establishment of Egypt University of Informatics (EUI), Africa’s first specialized ICT university, in partnership with global renowned universities, including Purdue University and Minnesota University.

Boosting government investments in Egypt’s ICT upskilling programs to expand their outreach from around 15,000 trainees annually, to more than 600,000 trainees in three years.

The achievements also included partnering with global education providers to train more than 100,000 Egyptians annually, in specializations demanded by the global freelancing market, which resulted in the growth of Egypt’s digital services exports.

The achievements also included the establishment of Egypt’s National Academy of Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities to serve as an inclusive training hub for PwDs and as an incubation center for assistive technologies.

Moreover, eight technology innovation hubs (Creativa Innovation Hubs) across eight governorates in Egypt were set up, as part of Dr. Talaat’s “Innov-Nation Strategy” which aims to propagate the digital innovation culture across the nation in all 27 governorates.

In addition, the achievements included the establishment of the Sultan Hussein Kamel Palace (Creativa Innovation Hub), which is the first-of-its-kind innovation hub in Egypt. A historic palace in Cairo’s Heliopolis district.

The palace was once home to the family of Egypt’s monarch, it is an architectural gem, that was restored by MCIT under the leadership of Dr. Talaat, and opened to Egypt’s brant entrepreneurship ecosystem as an accelerator and incubator at the heart of Cairo.

The achievements also included building partnerships with global players in the venture capital and incubation businesses to operate Creativa Hubs.

Moreover, the achievements included the establishment of Egypt’s largest Electronics Design Hub and R&D labs in the New Administrative Capital, which hosts local and international electronics design companies.

As for Digital Information and Telecommunications Infrastructure, an ambitious plan was undertaken to transform Egypt’s digital infrastructure, under Dr. Talaat’s leadership.

Egypt’s fixed broadband infrastructure was overhauled and expanded leading to Egypt’s prominence as Africa’s fastest Internet provider since 2021 consistently, after years of being ranked 40th among African nations.

As for Digital Transformation of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, with the launch of digital citizen services that enhance transparency and governance of the services provided by mobile operators to citizens in Egypt. This includes the launch of MyNTRA mobile application, and the enforcement of new mobile portability regulations in Egypt to increase competition among mobile operators.

The achievements also included launching a new network monitoring services and publishing the reports’ results for mobile operators’ quality of service across multiple metrics across Egypt, which improves operator’s accountability for enhancing services and empower citizens to make informed decisions about their preferred network provider.

Egypt’s first and largest Regional Data Hub was established as a part of the country’s Data Center strategy in addition to increasing Egypt’s Submarine Cable Landing Stations from seven to 10 stations within one year, to further bolster Egypt’s position as a regional connectivity hub.

As for International Relations, Egypt hosted the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-19) in Sharm El Sheikh in 2019.

Moreover, the New Administrative Capital was chosen as the Arab region’s Digital Capital for 2021.

Under the leadership of Dr. Talaat, Egypt chaired the 51st Ordinary Session of the Executive Bureau of the Arab Telecommunications and Information Council of Ministers (ATICM), organized by the League of Arab States.

Egypt chaired 26th Session of the Arab Telecommunications and Information Council of Ministers (ATICM), within which the Arab ICT Strategy was adopted.