President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi inaugurated the Cairo Information and Communications Technology (ICT) exhibition 2016 on Sunday. "I feel proud of what has been established in less than a year. In December, we had launched initiatives that aimed to develop the field, and increase the value added to the products of the sector. Over the past year, I have closely watched the efforts of workers in the sector, and I feel proud of the achievements that have been realised. There are many projects that will achieve a leap in the field of information and communications technology," Al-Sisi said in his speech at the exhibition's inauguration. "The technological parks we inaugurate today in Assiut and Borg El-Arab, for instance, will create thousands of jobs for Egyptians. They will also contribute to increasing exports from the programming industry and the provision of telecommunications and information technology services on behalf of major international companies. They will encourage creativity and entrepreneurship, as well as increase exports of electronic devices whose factories will be established in these areas," Al-Sisi added. The establishment of the two technological parks in Assiut and Borg El-Arab in less than a year, as well as reaching an occupancy rate of 75% for areas allocated for businesses of information technology, are considered achievements for Egyptians to be proud of, he stated. These parks will enhance Egypt's global position in the fields related to information and communications technology. They will also provide jobs in all governorates, and 4,000 jobs in each area during the first year, according to Al-Sisi. Moreover, he added that launching 4G services will put Egypt back in its place among countries in terms of communications and provide better service to Egyptians, in addition to meeting the demands of the business sector. He noted that the government is implementing the first phase of the integrated databases project, which aims to build an informational and technological environment conducive to the integration of all state bodies, and link information to national IDs to enable decision-makers to observe the effectiveness of decisions and resolutions. He also said the integrated databases will be used for analysis and policy design."This project will contribute to building the modern society in Egypt, improve public services, and provide them, equally, to all Egyptians," he added. Minister of Communications and Information Technology Yasser Al-Qadi said the ministry has completed the establishment of 220 databases for a number of government bodies, adding that they will be filtered and cross-linked to finish the project by mid-2017. Al-Sisi said that the IT sector successfully attracted investments of four international producers to manufacture mobile phones, tablets, and fibre optics in Egypt. "This is an important step on the right track to restore Egypt's position among the world countries," he added. "By following the development of this sector in 2016, I found that the national projects in various areas have proper technological bases which enable us to achieve their goals at the lowest cost and highest quality. The contribution of this sector in outsourcing services amounted to more than $500,000 at the end of September 2016, with a work force of 30,000 specialists," he said. Furthermore, he added that he wants Egyptians to exert more effort and attract more foreign and domestic investment for the expansion of these services, with a focus on high-quality value-added services, including software development and technical support services, as well as services related to research, development, and innovation. These services, he explained, will maximise the yield of Egyptian exports in this promising area, which provides thousands of jobs for young people. He called for at least two technological areas to be established every year. Al-Sisi launched today the construction phase of "Knowledge City" on an area of about 300 acres in the New Administrative Capital.
