The 22nd round of the Cairo Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Expo took place this week, with President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi inaugurating it on Sunday and announcing the launch of the Egypt-Africa Initiative for Innovation in Digital Games and Applications. The initiative aims at training and developing the skills of 10,000 Egyptian and African young people in digital technology and encouraging the establishment of 100 Egyptian start-ups in the field. During his speech at the inauguration ceremony, Al-Sisi said that Egypt was giving priority to the ICT sector through developing and modernising the telecommunications infrastructure, establishing smart cities and enabling citizens to use digital services. He also highlighted the importance of the digital transformation and its role in achieving a qualitative leap in society. He said that the efforts and projects being implemented through cooperation between the various ministries were reinforcing the confidence that the country was on the right path towards a digital society. Al-Sisi added that a digital society provided equal opportunities for citizens to participate in the development process and allowed for innovative digital services that improved operational efficiency, increased productivity and improved the standard of living. Minister of Communications Amr Talaat announced the launch of an Arabic-language “digital academy” that would provide self-training opportunities for young people in Egypt and Africa at the expo. He said the academy was in tandem with the government's efforts to attract investments and develop technological zones. He referred to several projects in this regard, including establishing eight companies for technological innovation in universities and building a “Knowledge City” in the New Administrative Capital. During the expo, several public authorities launched digital services, including an online feature from Egypt Post that allows people to pay their traffic fines online. Talaat said that a “digital marriage” service had also been launched, aiming to curb underage marriages. The service requires marriage officiants (maazoun) to register newlyweds' data online through a database that will instantly verify the husband's and wife's ages to make sure the marriage is legal according to Egyptian law, Talaat said. The TransIt Company, an operator of railway services, also launched an Android-based railway ticketing mobile app using the QR code that is used to provide easy access to information through a smartphone at the expo. The ministry of transport-affiliated company said that the new service was in accordance with government keenness to move forward in the use of technology and its application across different fields. Telecom Egypt (TE) also unveiled its recently launched payment-solutions application, Bee. The Android-based mobile app aims to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions and allows users to send and transfer money via e-mail. On the sidelines of the expo, Egypt's National Postal Authority (NPA) signed a protocol with the Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) Company, a German company headquartered in Munich that provides banknote and securities printing, smart cards and cash handling. Egypt Post's Chairman Essam Al-Saghir said the protocol would help establish centres affiliated to the Postal Authority to manage the transfer of funds, in addition to sorting and detecting forgery and collecting money through fully secured automated systems. The four-day expo took place in Cairo from 25 to 28 November with the participation of more than 500 exhibitors from 16 countries.
