The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has met with a number of French firms, via video conference, in the presence of the Egyptian Ambassador to France Alaa Youssef and the French Ambassador to Egypt Stéphane Romatet.
The meeting discussed co-operation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) fields, especially those related to smart city systems and applications, with Business France, the French national agency serving the internationalisation of the French economy, and with the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF).
During the meeting, Talaat underlined that Egypt is carrying out a national plan to establish smart cities that capitalise on advanced technologies in providing services and running facilities. Those cities include the New Administrative Capital, which was selected as the Arab Digital Capital for 2021 given its highly advanced digital and technological infrastructure.
Talaat added that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is keen to bring about Digital Egypt strategy, as part of a work approach based on establishing productive partnerships with the private sector and international institutions.
The ICT Minister praised the efforts of the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Paris and the French mission in Cairo to enhance co-operation between the two countries in ICT, especially in using AI to attain development. He added that he looks forward to leveraging the French expertise in AI-based smart city applications, hoping for the meeting to yield an all-encompassing vision of the technologies and smart solutions related to designing, building and running smart cities.
Furthermore, Youssef expressed his happiness with the ongoing enhanced co-operation in AI and technology, highlighting that those areas help further the close ties between the two countries. He pointed out Egypt’s persistent effort to build long-term partnerships with French firms, in a way that allows developing new digital solutions and co-operating is areas not limited to purchasing the final product. Youssef reaffirmed that the Embassy supports enhancing co-operation between the two countries in technology and AI during the coming period.
For his part, Romatet stressed his country’s eagerness to collaborate with Egypt to implement a pilot project for employing AI in building a smart city, starting from presenting the general visualisation of the project, up to its full implementation.
The Advisor to the ICT Minister for AI Golestan Radwan said that employing AI applications in smart cities is one of the main pillars of the National AI Strategy. She added that MCIT is coordinating with the Egyptian authorities concerned with smart cities to make optimal use of AI applications in areas including infrastructure management, waste treatment, smart transportation, proactive maintenance, smart buildings and crisis management.
Radwan stated that the meeting was organised to explore the capabilities of French firms in this field, since France has a vast experience in building smart cities, and given the deep strategic ties between Egypt and France, especially in AI.
During the meeting, the French firms representatives reviewed a range of advanced technological solutions used to create and run smart cities, and presented some of the major successful projects implemented worldwide.
