THE FIRST Egyptian-made smartphone was unveiled on Sunday during the Cairo ICT 2017 exhibition. Handing the smartphone to President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, Egypt's Minister of Communication and Information Technology Yasser Al-Kadi said 45 per cent of its components were locally produced. During the exhibition Al-Sisi also inaugurated new technological parks in the Assiut, Beni Sueif and Menoufiya governorates by video conference. The parks have been established on 50 feddans of land (one feddan is 0.42 hectares). They are part of Egypt's plans to promote technological innovation and information technology across the country. The Cairo ICT is an annual networking event for the communications and information technology industry. The new smartphone unveiled at this year's event is manufactured by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology-affiliated SICO Technology. Named Nile X, it features an octa-core processor, a 5.7-inch high-definition screen, a 13 megapixel dual camera, finger print sensors, four GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage and comes with Android 7.0 Nougat software. Different versions of the Nile X, which will be available in local, Arab and African markets starting 15 December, are priced from LE2,000 to LE4,200. The Nile X smartphone project is the result of a LE400 million investment and is manufactured in the SICO Technology factory in the Assiut Technological Park in Upper Egypt. The factory has an annual production capacity of 1.8 million units, with foreign components provided by China. This year's Cairo ICT also saw the launch of an electronic visa service which will allow visitors to apply for and obtain an Egyptian entry visa online. Citizens from 46 countries are eligible to apply for online visas as part of its first phase. The project is being carried out in coordination with the Ministry of the Interior and the United Nations. “Egypt's electronic visa will allow for increasing numbers of tourists to the country,” Al-Sisi said. According to its Website, the e-visa is a single-entry visa valid for a maximum stay of 30 days. It is compulsory for travellers wishing to visit Egypt for tourism, business and transit purposes. Over its four days ending yesterday the Cairo ICT included sessions discussing social transformation through digital innovation, digital transformation in Egypt, creating new business opportunities through fifth-generation (5G) technology, the future of digital banking, financial technology, smart cities and rebooting cyber-security to survive in an increasingly risky landscape. The event, Egypt's largest information-technology gathering, was attended by more than 1,000 technology experts, industry leaders and government officials, with the participation of more than 500 companies from different countries around the world, according to its organisers.
