The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has addressed “Egypt’s Digital Strategy-Opportunities and Challenges” event, organised by Canada Egypt Business Council (CEBC).
The event was attended by Former Minister of Transportation Alaa Fahmy, Former ICT Minister Khaled Negm, the Deputy ICT Minister for Institutional Development Ghada Labib, the Chairman of the Egyptian National Post Organisation (ENPO) Sherif Farouk, the CEO of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) Amr Mahfouz, Telecom Egypt CEO and Managing Director Adel Hamed, the Chairwoman of the Information Technology Institute (ITI) Heba Saleh, the Director of the National Telecommunication Institute (NTI) Iman Ashour, the Advisor to the Minister for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Golestan Radwan, and CEBC Chairman Motaz Raslan.
In his talk, Talaat highlighted that the State institutions join forces to build Digital Egypt, where digital technologies are adopted to develop and grow all sectors. He explained the development achieved at the ICT sector over the past three years, which was reflected in the rise in the economic performance indicators, with the sector staying the highest growing State sector for two consecutive years.
The ICT Minister stated that 60 digital government services have been made available on Digital Egypt platform, and can also be accessed through different channels, including post offices, government service centres and the call centre 15999. He added that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is co-operating with different State agencies and institutions in relocating the government to the New Administrative Capital to achieve the transition to a participatory, smart and paperless government.
Moreover, investments of about EGP 30 billion were made over the past two years to boost the internet connection, which helped increase the average internet speed in Egypt from 6.5 Mbps in January 2019 to 39.6 Mbps in April 2021. The plan proceeds with investments of EGP 5.5 billion, this year. Talaat added that MCIT will carry out a project to raise the efficiency of the information infrastructure at the villages of the first phase of Haya Karima (Decent Life) presidential initiative.
