This Wednesday, Egypt will begin the 15th Cairo ICT exhibition, a leading communication and information technology event in the Middle East. Running through May 28, French companies are being highlighted as the guest of honor at the four day event. French Ambassador Jean Felix-Paganon and Egyptian Communications Minister Maguid Osman will launch the exhibition, which has already seen optimism grow ahead of Wednesday. “What we are seeing is an event that coming in the post-Mubarak era will really be a litmus test to understand the future of business in Egypt,” said IT analyst Hossam Mohamed in Cairo. He added that “if companies are going to change the attitude and start getting things accomplished, now is the time.” The top pavilion at the exhibition will, of course, be the French, which despite worries from analysts over alienating other investors, will have 10 leading French companies from the banking, insurance and telecom sectors present to “promote their new technologies and services to a broad spectrum of visitors from Egypt, Africa and the Middle East region,” a statement published by AMEinfo.com read. Although the optimism is high, and with a large European contingent expected, observers and analysts worry that all the post-revolution feelings could be too much to actually develop relationships and get deals done. “It is early so let's not speculate, but there are some within the sector that are feeling the tension because it is such a high profile event and Egypt is supposedly going in a completely different direction than it was a year ago,” added Mohamed. BM
