CAIRO – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah stressed the importance of preserving Egypt’s role as a major data transfer point in the world.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of Government Data and Cloud Computing Centre (P1) Sunday, President Sisi said: “The state spent billions of dollars in order to prepare an integrated infrastructure in this regard and the opening of the Government Data and Cloud Computing Centre today prepares Egypt to take its place in a world that is progressing rapidly in an accelerating pace.”
The president added that the idea of establishing the centre depends on Egypt’s distinguished location saying “we must benefit from this point, especially that 90% of the submarine cables in the world pass through Egypt: being a major hub for data transmission and communications in the world”.
The Egyptian state has exerted strenuous efforts in this field and we will continue to work in this respect, said the president.
President Sisi said it is necessary for us to work on preparing an integrated infrastructure to preserve Egypt’s status as a major hub for transferring data between the East and the West.
Billions of dollars have been spent in this field – despite the current wave of soaring prices that we are suffering from – with the aim of participating in the future in which the world is progressing greatly, president Sisi said.
“We are preparing Egypt for a real breakthrough in this field very quickly,” he added.
Egypt is a main hub for transferring data between the East and the West, Sisi said, adding that the government has exerted efforts to set up an infrastructure that backs government plans to develop digitalization domain.
Egypt spent billions of dollars to prepare infrastructure that will help the state make a real breakthrough in the field of digitization in a way that copes up with rapid changes in this domain worldwide.
In the past, Egypt used to store its data abroad in return for huge sums but now the government has been able to localize its data on its lands, the President said.
Egypt started to develop data and entrepreneurship in 2018 in line with the construction of the New Administrative Capital, he said.
In the past, each ministry used to have its own data server without being able to ensure its security and its ability to interact with the rest of the ministries but now the main data center will include all data of ministries, and no one will be able to access this highly-secured network, he said.
He added that the halls that house the servers and data centers cannot be accessed by anyone even those responsible for their management.
Sisi said that a specialised company will make necessary amendments to the design of Justice City in the New Administrative Capital to turn it into a digital city, adding that the government is exerting tireless efforts in the digitisation domain.
Though Egypt has a population of 106 million, the number of people working in the digital domain is still little if compared to countries that have 10 million population while half of its residents are working in the outsourcing domain, he added.
He underlined the importance of investing in humans, urging Egyptian families to encourage their children to hone their programming skills. The future is now for programing and data sciences, he added.
He expressed readiness to spend dlrs 30,000 to 60,000 on every individual to learn programing skills, saying this important domain is capable of getting Egypt out of any tough economic conditions.
President Sisi urged State bodies to focus more on outsourcing programmes so that young people can examine their readiness for such programs.
He called for an increase in the number of these programmes, saying their number is little if compared with overpopulation rates.
Communications Minister Amr Talaat shared the same opinion with the President Sisi, saying between 150,000 to 180,000 young people are working in the outsourcing domain, 60 percent of them in the first level, 25 per cent in the second one and 15 percent in the most-wanted and highly-valued third one.
The President referred to tremendous efforts exerted to develop this domain, criticising those who want to suspend these programs.
He assured citizens that these sites are highly secured and cannot be targeted by any way.
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