Computer sales fell by 40 percent last year compared to the year before, with 350,000 computers sold in 2011 versus 600,000 in 2010, Khalil Hassan Khalil, head of the computers and software division at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said on Monday. Khalil also said that small and medium software companies that depend on government bids have seen a sharp decline of 85 percent compared to 2010. Sources in the computers and software division at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce said that the Ministry of Education disagreed with its suppliers over the computers, which it says do not conform to the specifications it requires. The suppliers contested the specifications, although they acknowledged that the local product is of low standard, the sources added. They also said the federation asked the ministers of education, communication and industry to review the specifications so as to allow suppliers to bid and to allow their representatives to attend the meetings of the ministerial committees that set the technical specifications. Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
