CAIRO: The annual Cairo ICT trade fair and forum opened its 15th edition Wednesday after being postponed from the original February date due to the recent political developments in Egypt. Magued Osman, minister of communications and information technology, opened the conference in the presence of French ambassador Jean Felix-Paganon, welcoming France as this year's guest of honor. Osman highlighted digital marketing as the new trend in upcoming year. Tanzanian Deputy Minister for Communication, Science and Technology Charles Kitwanga and Frank Martinez, worldwide director of Digital Inclusion and Government PC programs, Intel World Ahead Program, were also present. The exhibition witnessed a large turnout, with more than 200 companies including Microsoft, Sony, Huawei, EMCs, Motorolla, MAC, Intel, Cisco, Egypt Post, Vodafone, Mobinil. Attendees were eager to move forward with growing the country's vital ICT sector, and despite the current uncertainty on the political and economic fronts, were optimistic about the future. IBM Country General Manager Amr Talaat said, “This is our first direct participation as IBM in the Cairo ICT. We were not going to participate in this year's exhibition but after the revolution we insisted on participating. IBM [views] the Egyptian market as a promising market [that] just happened to witness a setback. The business environment in Egypt will come back stronger than before.” Wael Khalil, computer engineer at LinkDotNet as well as a prominent blogger and activist, said, “Holding the Cairo ICT exhibition now promotes B2B (business-to-business) [interaction] as one of the main goals for the exhibition.” Earlier this week, Khalil appeared on a panel on ONTV's “Akher Kalam” with Yosri Fouda to discuss the demands of the planned May 27 protest. “This year's exhibition is more organized than the last year and there's a notable presence from big companies. In the second day of the exhibition, a seminar [will discuss] the future of the internet in Egypt,” he added. Former education minister Ahmed Zaki Badr made an appearance at the exhibition but refused to make any comments to the media. IBM's Talaat said, “The attractive elements in Egypt still exist [as well as] the tremendous energy of the Egyptian youth and their awareness of the benefits of new technologies. “IBM Egypt is our strongest hub in the Middle East and Africa and we also export Egyptian labor to other countries to benefit from their experience.”
