Egypt's Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), part of the Egyptian Ministry of Communications, announced on Monday the disbursement of its Export-IT's 2019 cash rebate on ICT exports of the local ICT companies. The total amount of export rebate for the programme's 11th round has reached 70 million Egyptian pounds ($4.46 million) and have been paid for a total number of 131 companies out of 137 that have applied for the programme this year. "Export IT programme is part and parcel of ITIDA's strategy that primarily aims at boosting Egyptian IT exports, increasing competitiveness, and enabling them to expand and access global markets." Amr Mahfouz, ITIDA chief executive, said. Mahfouz stressed that ITIDA attaches great importance to the Export IT programme in light of challenges brought upon by the global pandemic and the unprecedented government support and commitment to boost exports as one of the main sources of foreign currency for the Egyptian economy. Based on the Egyptian ICT companies' request, ITIDA has reopened the submission of documents for Export IT 2020 rebate disbursement for a period of two weeks until the end of July, aiming to expand the base of beneficiary exporting companies. Earlier this year, ITIDA launched an exceptional round of its annual Export IT programme to cope with the challenges introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic, by offering the local IT companies cash incentives on proceeds of value-added exports for two consecutive years; 2019 and 2020. According to ITIDA, 33 companies have applied for the programme the first time, while 22 startups have joined this year. The 11th round of the programme saw the participation of new companies from governorates other than Greater Cairo such as Alexandria, Dakahlia, and Ismailia. All export transactions and supporting documents have been audited, reviewed, and cross-validated by the programme's external auditor. The programme accepts local ICT companies with more than 50 percent of Egyptian ownership, headquartered in Egypt, and are exporting ICT services, IT-enabled services such as call centre services, consultation, and training services related to the IT industry. ITIDA has excluded the Egyptian IT startup companies that were founded in 2016 or later from the "headquartered in Egypt" condition. According to the terms and conditions of the programme, approved companies receive direct cash incentives up to 10 percent, and with a maximum limit of 20 percent of value-added exports based on the company size (micro, small, medium, or large), with a maximum amount of 2.5 million pounds for each company or 3 million pounds for companies operating in or have branches in one of the new tech parks. The programme offers additional incentives to companies exporting e-commerce, e-gaming, e-Health, e-design services. Further incentives are also granted to companies operating in new tech parks, the new entrants to the programme, and the companies operating in other governorates than Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria. In line with its new strategy to promote and encourage exports of disruptive and emerging technologies such as AI, data science, and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), ITIDA has exceptionally accepted medium companies with annual revenues exceeding 50 million, exporting emerging technologies services or those who have succeeded in entering into new markets. These companies have enjoyed the benefit by getting the full export support on the total value added of their export earnings and not only on the increase of its value-added. Throughout the eleven previous rounds of Export-IT, ITIDA has extended support to more than 230 Egyptian companies, with a total value amounting to 480 million pounds.
