The Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), part of the Egyptian Ministry of Communications, is playing a leading role in nurturing the tech-innovation startups and boosting the local entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt, said its CEO on Monday. "ITIDA aims to create a supportive business environment for the local startups in Egypt in light of the ministry of CIT's strategic pillar of empowering entrepreneurs and growing the startup ecosystem." Ahmed Elzaher said at one of the panel sessions of Techne Summit 2023. ElZaher affirmed that ITIDA's support extends to offering services that span across the entire value chain and the whole lifecycle of the startups stating form promoting the culture of entrepreneurship, especially among the student community. The agency also offers incubation and pre-incubation services that extend to supporting startups to penetrate global markets and matchmaking these startups with potential investors. ITIDA CEO further added that the agency has thus far trained 11,000 of the local talent in areas of the entrepreneurship during 2023 across its Digital innovation hubs (CREATIVA) spread across the country where ITIDA offers a variety of programmes and services to around 400 technology / technology-enabled startups. "We offer various programmes attending to the different stages and segments of the startup ecosystem, such as the Women Entrepreneurship Programme (Heya Ra'ydaa), a programme dedicated to empowering and supporting early-stage women entrepreneurs with tech ideas, in addition to incubation programmes for high-tech startups." ElZaher explained that cooperation with multinational and local companies is an integral element of ITIDA's work, as it partners with many firms to support the startup sector. He referred to ITIDA's cooperation with a leading tech company to establish and equip the first Industry 4.0 Innovation Center (IIC) in Egypt, in the Knowledge City at the New Administrative Capital, which will be inaugurated soon. Techne Summit 2023 took place at Bibliotheca Alexandrina on October 7-10 under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), ITIDA, the Digital Economy and Technology General Division – DETGD, and the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC). Techne Summit Alexandria offers an intensive programme of diverse activities over four days that involves more than 80 discussion sessions and 50 interactive workshops. The summit brings together more than 300 speakers, 220 investors, and 145 exhibiting startups and companies to delve into discussions on tech, innovation, and investment across 10 distinct tracks that cover diversified fields and sectors. During Techne Summit 2023, ITIDA sponsors the participation of 20 startups, including 10 exhibiting firms under the pavilion of ITIDA and the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC) at the summit. This is in addition to supporting the participation of 10 startups in the activities of the summit in order to help them network and meet up with potential investors to support their entrepreneurial projects.
