President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi visited the Egypt Post section at Cairo ICT 2017 and was received by Essam El Sagheer, chairperson of Egypt Post. El Sagheer said that the lack of adequate data and information about citizens has become a problem that concerns all officials in Egypt and at Egypt Post as well. "We are facing the same problem as the data of mail customers, who are more than 24 million customers, needs to be updated," he said. He added that they were quick to use unconventional methods to solve this problem. Egypt Post has set up a complete electronic system to obtain customer data, based on automating the reading of national ID cards and fingerprints, and linking them to the customer's financial accounts. El Sagheer explained that once customers arrive at the service window, the employee inserts their national ID card into a scanner that reads and saves the data. Finger and handprints are then obtained, added El Sagheer, and the system connects fingerprints and iris recognition with the customer's national ID card so that Egypt Post can obtain the customer's documented data and update it more quickly. He pointed out that this system will be modelled by being applied as a first stage to some offices and for refugees who benefit from UNICEF assistance through post centres, and in that manner, Egypt Post would be the first service in Egypt to have an accurate database of customers. The system is being implemented in high-density areas so clients' data can be checked as soon as possible, Essam said, noting that mail clients will benefit from the speed and ease of dealing with postal service centres, as once the data is saved, any customer on the system will be able to use all the services provided by the Egyptian mail service, whether through iris recognition or fingerprint scanning. In addition, President Al-Sisi launched a zip code project, where he witnessed a live experience of the project to launch its actual application. Zip codes aim to provide easy access to addresses, instead of using the current traditional method, which would have a great impact on facilitating the work of many other services, such as shipping and delivery companies, rescue teams, ambulances, and firefighters. In addition, accurate positioning would be able to find zip codes through the website or Egypt Post's mobile application. Al-Sisi also launched the first integrated electronic market, "Bareed Mall", to be an e-commerce platform and an international commercial outlet to support small, medium, and micro enterprises, as the owners of these projects get access to digital solutions for advanced e-commerce services through which they can offer their products.
