The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has announced plans for new technological projects and an unprecedented aid package to the Nile Basin countries to help develop their communications systems. A statement issued by the ministry said that Egypt would use its expertise to build a regional training center in two Nile Basin countries, one English-speaking and the other French-speaking. Minister of Communication and Information Technology Tareq Kamel said that his ministry would construct “smart buildings” similar to Egypt's “smart village” in the countries of the Nile Basin and actively encourage cooperation in the fields of investment and human resource development. Egypt will also help with the development of the legislative frameworks for communication policies, he added. The minister also said that Egypt will help these countries build information technology clubs and mobile internet units in villages and remote areas as establish specialized training programs in which the National Telecommunications Institute, the Information Technology Institute and Egypt Post will participate. Egypt will also assist in the development of their electronic content and security, and in the documentation of a Nile Basin memory. Kamel had previously met with Sabri Mohamed Magdi, Egypt's ambassador to Uganda, to discuss promoting cooperation between Egypt and the Nile Basin countries through the activation of the Egyptian initiative for the development of the Information Society in the Nile Basin. A senior delegation from the Telecommunications Ministry will visit Uganda next month, and another technical team will also be dispatched to examine Uganda's needs in the fields of information technology. Egypt has stepped up political and economic action over the past few weeks in order to discourage the Nile Basin countries from going ahead with a new framework for redistributing Nile water quotas, as per an agreement signed recently. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
