Prime Minister Hesham Qandil inaugurated on Tuesday the second phase of the technological investment zone in Maadi, which aims to attract more foreign investments in telecommunication and information technology. Qandil was accompanied by the minister of communication and information technology, minister of investment, the governor of Cairo, as well as other government officials. The new project includes five buildings equipped to accommodate Egyptian and international companies working in information technology and outsourcing services. The project spreads over a total area of 42,000 square metres, with entire investments reaching EGP 290m that can create, according to Qandil, 28,000 direct and indirect job opportunities. The project also hosted a number of Egyptian and international companies like INTEL, NAOS, CENTRO, IST, Etisalat and Henkel. The prime minister emphasised that the government is keen on supporting and developing the industry of information and telecommunication technology, and cares to attract more domestic and foreign investments in this sector. "The government is working to turn Egypt into an international centre for internet services and to make best use of its distinctive geographical position to be more like a regional and international communication operations centre by ideally utilising marine cables passing though the state," Qandil said He pointed out that according to international rankings, Egypt lists second in the flow of marine cables, and he believes that this help the country achieve huge profits. Furthermore, Minister of Telecommunication Atef Helmy asserted that the telecommunication sector is still a prominent and active source of income. "The government seeks to raise its exports of information technology services products, which amounted to $1.360bn in 2012, by establishing more business technology regions in Cairo as well as other cities," Helmy said.
