ICT Sector in Egypt:

1
ICT Sector in Egypt
A Model For Reform
Amr HASHEM Ministry of Communications and
Information Technology Arab Republic of
Egypt AHashem_at_mcit.gov.eg
2
Agenda

• Outlook of Egypt
• ICT Reform Process
• Timeline
• Major Policies
• Success Stories
• Way Forward

3
Egypt Potential

• Geography
• Cross Connection between Europe, Africa and the
  Middle East.
• Resources
• 80 billion invested in modernization of
  infrastructure in 21 years
• 72 Million inhabitants with 50 under the age of
  20
• Ranking 17th worldwide in no. of yearly graduates

4
Reform Process

• Empowerment of the Democratic Process
• Multi-Candidate Presidential Elections
• Parliamentary Elections under full supervision of
  the judiciary
• Transition into a Market Economy
• Building the institutional and regulatory
  framework
• Multitude of opportunities for private investment

5
ICT Reform Process
6
Policy Principles

• Involvement of partnerships throughout the
  process
• Empowerment of the role of the civil society
• Free flow of information to all stakeholders
• Good Governance
• Decentralization of decision making
• Critical Role of Regulatory Institutions

Commitment of Political Leadership to support ICT
development
7
Information Society Initiative

• Inclusion of the stakeholders in the analysis and
  policy development process
• Government
• Technology Providers
• Service Providers
• Formulation of a master plan for ICT sector
  development in a deregulated environment
• E-Readiness
• E-Learning
• E-Government
• Execution of the plan in a Public-Private
  Partnership approach

• Network operators
• Academia
• Financial institution
• E-Health
• E-Culture
• ICT-Exports

8
Integration in Regional and Global Economy

• Bi-lateral Trade Agreements
• Multilateral Trade Agreements
• Euro-Mediterranean Partnership
• Greater Arab Free Trade Agreement
• Common Market for East and South Africa
• World Trade Organization

9
World Trade Organization

• Undertook commitments for Basic Telecom
  Liberalization under the BTA in June 2002
• Full commitment to Reference Paper
• Technology-neutral approach to licensing of
  services
• Full Market Liberalization by the end of 2005
• No limitations on Foreign Capital participation

10
World Trade Organization

• Egypt joined the Information Technology Agreement
  in April 2003
• Progressive Approach to Tariff reductions over 4
  years
• Drop of tariffs by 2005
• Extension for nascent industries till 2007

• Accelerated the execution as part of the customs
  reform package in September 2004
• Dropped the cost of deploying new ICT
  infrastructure by more than 33
• Instrumental in various initiatives for
  PC-ownership and broadband deployment

Weighted Tariffs on ICT products
11
Further Liberalization under WTO

• An offer for commitments on Computer Related
  Services for improving Egypts positioning as an
  IT hub for MENA
• No limitation on foreign staffing for the first 4
  years of operations
• No restrictions on foreign ownership or national
  treatment
• Permitting cross-border supply of services
  whenever required
• Restructuring of the postal sector in Egypt
  inline with international best practices
• Licensing several companies for provision of
  Courier services in Egypt
• No limitations on National Treatment or foreign
  participation in courier companies

12
Professional Training

• Developing highly qualified experts through
  Internationally certified programs
• Decision Support E-Commerce
• System Analysis Design
• Software Development
• Communication Networks Management Security
• Call Centers Operations and Management
• Executed in cooperation with Multinationals in a
  win-win approach

Graduates in Thousands
13
ICT Skills Development

• Aiming towards improving ICT literacy
• Office Applications
• Internet
• Web Development
• Executed in cooperation with universities and
  NGOs
• Qualifying trainees for International Computer
  Driving License

Graduates in Thousands
14
ICT Growth

• Private sector is leading the growth in ICT
  sector
• Investments of private-owned ICT Companies
  exceeded EGP 10 billions
• Number of private owned ICT companies exceeded
  1500 companies employing 35,000 employees
• Supporting the ICT Associations formation
• Egyptian Information Telecommunication
  Electronics Software Alliance (EITESAL)

15
Smart Village

• A business park over 300 Acres of land
• Multinationals (Microsoft, Alcatel, Vodafone, HP
  and Ericsson)
• Call Centers
• Technological incubators
• MCIT and NTRA
• A financial district in Phase III (2005-2006)

16
Regional Leadership in Converged Services

• Emergence of Egyptian Companies as regional
  operators
• Egypt is becoming a regional center for mobile
  network deployment and services
• ISC Alcatel
• RNSC- Ericsson
• An E-Content initiative for the digitization of
  Arabic Content

Privatization of Mobile Telephony has resulted in
a wealth generation of almost EGP 35 billion
17
A service-oriented Growth

• Encouragement of further Public-Private
  Partnerships for infrastructure, services and
  industry development
• Provision of Converged Services
• Postal Sector restructuring
• Launch of MVNOs
• Further regional role in coordination and
  harmonization of policies and regulations as part
  of the global Information Society
• Promotion of ventures serving regional markets
• Call centers
• Internet exchange
• regional service centers

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Useful websites

• www.mcit.gov.eg
• www.citegypt.com
• www.ntra.gov.eg