A cooperation initiative between the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and IBM has been launched reported the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) Monday. The initiative will allow IBM to assist 100 independent software vendors (ISVs) in cloud computing. "IBM will help deepen the technical and business expertise of the software companies through a series of workshops and mentoring," the ministry said. In March, during a visit by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb to Smart Village just outside Cairo, ITIDA and IBM signed a memorandum of understanding for the initiative. The ministry said the tech-company will help software companies develop their technical and business expertise through workshop sessions. "IBM offers a bundle of training programmes and special applications in this area," the MCIT statement said. "The initiative is in line with ITIDA strategy which seeks to support ISVs, thus increasing its competitiveness and accessing new markets, thereby strongly contribute to the growth of the Egyptian's economy." During his visit to Smart Village, Mehleb witnessed the signing of several other agreements between the MCIT and international companies, including Microsoft, Henkel and Valeo. "The agreements are to contribute to the increase of Egyptian IT exports by around $20m, provide new job opportunities, and make new applications available to export IT services," the ministry said.
