5th Annual ICT in Government Summit

1
5th Annual ICT in Government Summit The Role of
Gov. in Creating An ICT-Enabled Economy An
Egyptian Perspective RSA 22-24 May 06 Dr. Ahmad
Bassit ,Ph.D
2
Ministry of Communications Information
Technology
3
Egypt
4
Egypt's Location

• A regional hub
• Linking the Mediterranean,
• Europe, Asia and the Arab World.
• From North-to-South
• A gateway to Africa.
• From East-to-West
• A crossroad of shipping lines and optical fiber
  cables.

5
Population

• A country of 71.6 million people
• 58 of the population under 25.
• Ranking 17th worldwide
• in number of yearly graduates
• 1,112,651 high school graduates last year.
• 265,000 university graduates.

6
History

• Land of civilization
• Egypts long history and ancient
• civilization over thousands of years
• promoted the growth and
• the development of its remarkable
• identity and unique characteristics.

7
Economy

• A significant recovery through an
• extensive socio-economic reform program
• An emerging market with
• a multitude of opportunities
• for investments.
• A competent and cost-effective labor force.

8
Monthly Inflation Rate
Source Ministry of Foreign Trade Industry
9
Investment Climate

• Egypt is witnessing a transformation
• towards a modern, liberal private sector led
  market driven economy.

10
Egyptian Information Society Initiative
11
Our Vision

• Partnership between the Government, the Private
  Sector and Civil Society as a base for
  socio-economic development

12
Our strategy
Egyptian Information Society Initiative
E-Readiness
13
E-Readiness
E-Readiness Initiatives
A PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP) in which the
government articulates policy and regulatory
frameworks for the private sector and civil
society to implement for the benefit of the
Egyptian citizen
14
The Free Internet Initiative

• Avail free internet access on all fixed phone
  lines at the cost of a local call
• Jan 2002
• No monthly subscription.
• Provided by Telecom Egypt in conjunction
• with 210 Egyptian ISPs
• Beneficiaries
• 1.2 million Egyptian households,
• 5.2 million users

Target for Year 2007 Linking 1.7 million
households to the Free Internet Service,
reaching 7 million users while doubling the
international capacity
15

• PC for Every Home Notebook for Every Specialist
  Initiatives

• Enabling the Egyptian family to obtain a PC
• Monthly installments
• No advance payments
• phone line as collateral
• PCs manufactured or assembled locally
• 139.819 thousand PCs were sold since Dec. 2002

Partners
PC for Every Home Initiative 21 Egyptian
companies Telecom Egypt National Bank of Egypt
Banque Misr Notebook for Every Specialist
Initiative 2 Egyptian companies
Target 300,000 PCs by year 2007
16
IT Clubs Initiative
Availing technology to low-income areas in Egypt
1330 clubs located in 26 governorates and Luxor
city Selected locations Youth Centers, Cultural
Centers, NGOs, Schools Colleges
Club activities include

• Training courses
• Self training
• Use of Internet applications

Target 3000 club-including villages- by year
2007
17
Broadband Initiative

• Announced by the President in May 2004
• Purpose
• to widen the utilization of broadband in Egypt
• Modalities
• Reduce price by more than 50 to reach LE 150
  /month
• Facilitate installation activation
  procedures
• Launch a campaign to boost citizens awareness
• Provide Service by 8 private sector companies
  in collaboration with T.E.
• Broadband subscribers
• Actual 115,765
• Target during a year 250,000

18
Steady Increase in Fixed Lines A Boom In Mobile
Phone Users
Telephone Capacity increased by 6.5 million new
lines since October 1999 The number of Mobile
subscribers increased by 21 folds since October
1999
19
Major Increase in the number of Internet Users
International internet traffic increased from 20
Mb/s since October 1999 to 4.89 Gb/s by the end
of Apr 2006
20
Major Increase in Communications IT Services
21
Towards A Paperless A Cashless Society
Legislative Environment
Social Awareness
Regulatory Environment
E-Business Application
Infrastructure
22
E-Business

• To issue necessary legislation to regulate
  electronic transactions
• signatures spread their use
• To establish an infrastructure for E-Signature
  by using smart cards
• tech. in the banking sector
• To build a Credit Bureau to promote the use of
  credit cards
• using electronic payments in the services area
  including internet
• mobile banking
• To connect the networks of electronic
  transactions locally, regionally,
• and internationally for spread usage of Points
  Of Sale (POS)

23
Complementary activities to E- Business Regulating
electronic signature

IT Development Agency E- signature regulatory
department
Licenses , regulation follow up
Apply to issue an authentication certificate
Place of work
Entity for issuing a certificate for Electronic
Authentication
Electronic authentication certificate
24
National Postal Authority Success story of
E-Business in Egypt
Postal financial services for society
Pensions
Service Outlets
Saving Accounts
Postal Checks
14.58 mil. customers
3.1 mil. payees
3521 Gov. offices
LE 73.3 mil.
968.1 mil. LE/month
5111 Non-Gov. Outlets
LE 39.77 bil.
August 2005 Data
25
Aspects of developing the National Postal
Authority

• Automating 2000 Post Offices
• Automatic tracking
• Updating pension services and automating cash
• transfers
• Transforming Post centers to community centers

26
Illiteracy Eradication
Pre-University
Higher Education
RD
27
Illiteracy Eradication
ICT for Illiteracy Eradication

• Providing the required lessons for illiteracy
  eradication using Multimedia and Internet
• Train Facilitators to use this technology in
  illiteracy eradication classes
• Mobilizing the community to utilize this tool

28
Mobile IT Club

• Introducing ICT to communities in remote
  under-serviced areas
• Increasing the awareness of the different usage
  of ICT

29
Community Development Portal

• Assisting citizens (in rural urban areas) to
  use information technology to improve
• Skills
• Job opportunities
• Income
• Health
• Education
• Agriculture
• General knowledge
• Helps communities move towards the Knowledge
  Society

30
The Portal
Navigate by topic
Navigate by target
News
31
E-Library Knowledge Generation

• Provide a wealth of locally relevant knowledge
• Encourage citizens to gather, develop and share
  knowledge
• Improve research abilities of students and
  teachers alike
• Utilizing ICT to document and exchange local
  experiences
• Encourage active participation from communities

32
Competitions / Free Articles

• Target groups are students and teachers
• Suitable topics have been selected by experts
  from various partners

• Collect and document socio-economic developmental
  ideas from different sectors of the community

• Some sample articles include
• Textile industries in Mahalah
• Crafts in Alfawkher
• Transportation in Samanoud
• Furniture industries in ketmah

33
E-Learning

• Raising the competitiveness of the Egyptian
  labor force to
• serve local international markets
• Spreading knowledge by using new interactive
  models through
• the Internet
• Supporting the efforts of the ministries of
  Education
• Higher-Education in integrating ICT in the
  education system

34

• Pre-University Education
• Implemented in collaboration with the Ministry
  of Education
• To eliminate computer Internet illiteracy
  among preparatory
• school graduates within 5 years and
  qualifying them for the ICDL
• Smart Schools A pilot project for preparatory
  schools implemented
• in 13 governorates
  connecting schools to the Internet

12,000 schools were connected to the Free
Internet service All preparatory schools will be
connected to the Internet via broadband
facilities within a year
35
University Education

• Setting a new framework for participation of
  Egyptian
• universities in providing outstanding
  university
• education in technological fields
• Establishing special centers for E-Learning in
• cooperation with Egyptian universities

The first center is operating in the Smart
Village in cooperation with an international
company since September 2004
36
University Education

• In collaboration with the Ministry of Higher
  Education
• Establishing a new model for non-profit well
  recognized education in cooperation with
  universities

Nile University
A Non-Governmental University in cooperation with
IT companies and leading foreign universities
with the aim of building elite graduates
37
Professional Training Programs

• To develop a highly qualified experts in
  state-of-art technologies
• through internationally certified programs in
  cooperation with
• international companies to support the
  development of Egyptian
• industry
• The goal is to export services

No. of Trainees
38
Incubating Startup Companies Established by CIT
Graduates
Supported by MCIT/Social Fund for Development

• Characteristics
• Awarded to a relatively large number
• Low investment requirements
• Sharing the upside
• No penalty for failure
• High risk
• No or limited prior experience requirements

39
Incubating Startup Companies Established by CIT
Graduates
Supported by MCIT/Social Fund for Development

• Characteristics
• Awarded to a relatively large number
• Low investment requirements
• Sharing the upside
• No penalty for failure
• High risk
• No or limited prior experience requirements

40
E-Content

• To Assure the role of Egypt as a hub
• for culture and civilization
• To Preserve the Arabic content
• To Increase local, regional and international
  demand on Arabic content by opening
  nontraditional markets for it.
• To Develop the industry of electronic content
  creation, web applications development and
  content hosting

41
E-Content

• To Assure the role of Egypt as a hub
• for culture and civilization
• To Preserve the Arabic content
• To Increase local, regional and international
  demand on Arabic content by opening
  nontraditional markets for it.
• To Develop the industry of electronic content
  creation, web applications development and
  content hosting

42
Content Provider
Digitization
Classic Content
Hosting
ISPs
Online Content Portal DRM
End-User
43
Goal
Science and Technology Portal

• To Develop and maintain a Portal that enhances
  and facilitates the exchange of ST related
  data, information, Knowledge and Wisdom within
  the Scientific community

44
E-Health
Developing Health Services

• Establishing an Egyptian network for
  Telemedicine
• Setting up a network for medical records
• Establishing an Emergency Center connected to
  Geographical
• Information Systems for handling emergency
  calls
• E- Learning and training for physicians and
  nurses

45
E-Heritage

• Support the efforts of identity preservation
  through establishing
• a Center for documenting the cultural
  natural heritage in
• cooperation with Bibliotheca Alexandrina
  (Alexandria Library)
• Promoting the Egyptian civilization locally
  internationally
• through electronic publishing and Internet
  sites
• Establishing an information base for the
  Egyptian civilization
• and natural preservations

46
(No Transcript)
47
CIT Industry Development

• Increasing the Egyptian Exports of CIT to
  international markets and creating new job
  opportunities
• Regional and international marketing through
  regional
• international exhibitions and organizing trade
  missions
• Establishing a Centre of Excellence in Software
  Engineering
• (SECC) in cooperation with international
  companies to provide technical support and help
  in acquiring international
• certificates
• Attracting global CIT players to operate in
  Egypt as their hub
• for Middle East Africa

48
Investment Legislation Environment

• Adding the CIT activities to the Investment
  Incentives law.
• (Year 2001)
• Issuing Intellectual Property Law (Law No.
  82/2002)
• Issuing a progressive law to govern the
  communications
• industry (Law No. 10/2003)
• Issuing a law for E-signature and establishing
  the IT
• Development Agency ( Law No. 15/2004)

49
Vision
Protect national and international intellectual
properties rights related to computer S/W
D/Bs, to help establish Egypt as the NEXT
destination of choice for ICT offshore
out-sourcing in-sourcing for program
development services and RD activities.
50
CIT Industry Development
Smart Village
The first phase was launched by H.E.President
Mubarak in September 2003

• A business park on 300 Acres of land
• Capacity of 54 Companies buildings
• Hosting 25,000 30,000 job openings
• Buildings constitute 10 only of the area and
  the rest are
• green areas
• Investment incentives like tax exemptions are
  provided

51
Smart Village

• A high-speed network for transfer of data, audio
  
• video managed by the private sector
• Multinationals (Microsoft, Alcatel, Vodafone,
• Ericsson,) ,Egyptian companies and technology
  
• incubator buildings reside in Smart Village.
• There are areas available for SMEs
• Planned to establish a financial district in
  Phase III
• (2005 -2006) in which the Egyptian Stock
  Exchange
• a number of financial institutions will be
  present

52
RD Centers of Excellence Consortia Between
Universities, Research Institutions, and Industry
Data Mining Computer Modeling
Wireless Technologies
Mobile Services Applications
Electronic Design
Lead IBM, Microsoft
Lead TE, NTRA
Lead Orange, Alcatel
Lead Mentor, Cadence
General Support Annual award for best
research Patent filing and IP protection
Marketing Incentives for companies involved in
RD Incentives for researchers
53
Incubating Startup Companies Established by CIT
Graduates
Supported by MCIT/Social Fund for Development

• Characteristics
• Awarded to a relatively large number
• Low investment requirements
• Sharing the upside
• No penalty for failure
• High risk
• No or limited prior experience requirements

54
High-Tech Development Fund

• Establishment of VC fund of 50 million L.E. in
  cooperation
• between ICT and financial institutions
• Establishment of first incubation facility over
  2500 sq.m fully
• equipped with the required infrastructure.
• Provides technical, financial and administrative
  support for
• start-ups as well as small and medium IT
  enterprises.

55
Software Engineering Certification Center (SECC)
Aims at supporting the S/W industry in Egypt
through knowledge transfer from
leading IT institutes

• Activities
• Training programs on software process
  improvement
• Orientation workshops for Executives and
  Top
• Management
• Supporting top level S/W companies to
  qualify
• for CMM assessment accreditation

56
CIT Industry Development
57
A Large Increase in Communications Investment
LE 15 Billion total investments in the past 3
years through Telecom Egypt 2 mobile
operators 3 Pay phone companies 4 Network
Service Providers 8 Public Data carriers 210
Egyptian ISPs 3 phone cards companies 3 switch
manufacturing companies
58
A Large Increase in Communications IT
Investments
Source General Authority for Investment Free
Zones
59
Increase in No. of Communication IT Companies
Source General Authority for Investment Free
Zones
60
ICT in Egypt Future vision

• Create , Invent, Implement, Share, Disseminate
• Continuation of Gov. Enabling role
• Support to Public-Private Partnership model
• Africa as a critical mass
• Creating Synergy among African partners
• Vitalize Human Resources Development effort in
  the African Continent

61

• Thank you for your attention
• Contacts
• Dr. Ahmad Bassit
• International Relations Expert Director of
• E-Content Program
• Ministry of Communications Information
  Technology (MCIT)
• E-mail abassit_at_mcit.gov.eg
• www.mcit.gov.eg