Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Amr Talaat, and Secretary of State at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance Agnès Pannier-Runacher, signed a declaration on the promotion of entrepreneurship and growth of emerging companies in the field of information Technology. The declaration was signed between the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the French Ministry of Economy and Finance. As per the declaration, experience and visits will be exchanged between the bodies involved in the field of IT incubators in both countries; in addition both countries will cooperate in building the capabilities of entrepreneurs. This came as part of French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Egypt to sign a number of cooperation agreements between the two countries within the framework of the “Economic Forum for Investment” organized by the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation in cooperation with the French Chamber of Commerce. The minister stressed the importance of enhancing joint cooperation between Egypt and France in the field of communications and information technology through exchanging of experiences and increasing the volume of investments of French companies operating in the ICT sector in Egypt, which can contribute to the capacity building and rehabilitation of young cadres, providing them with theskills required for the labor market,and supporting areas of technological innovation and entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and Orange Egypt Telecom signed a joint cooperation agreement in order to expand the company's operations in Upper Egypt by opening a contact center in the new technology area of Assiut, and training of 1,000 trainees of Egyptian cadres and appointinga minimum of 60 percent of the total number of trainees annually during the term of the Convention, which is up to 3 years. The agreement also stipulates Orange's commitment to training 50 young developers annually under Orange's summer internship program. This training is accredited by the company and includes a number of state-of-the-art ICT applications and programs such as: Smart Cities, Cyber Security, and others. The agreement also refers to Orange's launch of Fab Lab's manufacturing plant in new BeniSuef technology zone at a later stage as part of its future expansion plan in Upper Egypt. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ITIDA and Valeo Egypt was also signed. The MoU, which extends for three years, stresses the two parties' cooperation in building the capacities of young cadres by providing training and job opportunities for graduates of their training programs tomeet the company's needs,enablingit to expand its business in Egypt and promote the culture of innovation and knowledge in Egypt through the implementation of projects in the field of research, development and patent registration in order to benefit from artificial intelligence techniques in electronic car systems. The fourth agreement was signed between ITIDA and TelePerformance to qualify skills in the ICT industry. The agreement aims at expanding the company's operations in Egypt and increasing the number of employees in the company's center in Egypt to work in the field of exporting call centers, customer service and technical support services to Europe, America and the Middle East by providing 1,700 new jobs within two yearsand the provision of relevant training programs to raise the capacity and qualification of young people to join the industry.
