The General Division of Computer and Software at Federation of Egyptian Chamber of Commerce (FEDCOC) launched the "Tawteen" initiative in cooperation with the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA). According to Khalil Hassan Khalil, board member of FEDCOC and head of the General Division of Computer and Software, the initiative targets to open effective channels of cooperation between international companies and major local companies through studying the needs of these companies and trying to match them through the division's member companies. He added that developing the businesses of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, through enabling new working opportunities to face the economic challenges the country is going through.
According to data provided by International Development Consultants (IDC), the size of the communications and information technology sector in 2016 will gain about $8.95bn, and is expected to increase by $10.32bn in 2019. The sector will see a compound annual growth rate of about 9% in 2019, according to IDC. Hesham Afifi, board member of the General Division of Computer and Software, said that there are 4,000 companies operating in the field of information technology in Egypt's different governorates. He added that the mission and execution of international companies' projects can be facilitated by local companies, especially SMEs. The size of the Egyptian market of information technology, according to Afifi, is about EGP 17bn and is expected to reach EGP 26bn by 2020. He also said that the amount of devices in the market is about 50%, while services amount to about 30%, and software acquires about 20%. The initiative targets to link between the needs of the international companies on one side and the major local companies and SMEs on the other, as well as expanding business opportunities for all parties. That would be achieved by qualifying these companies through developmental programmes tailored specifically for that purpose, as well as helping SMEs administratively and technically carry out their role more professionally in the fields of distribution, maintenance, technical support, and products and services development. The announcement came in participation with ITIDA and a number of international companies' heads, including Cisco, Dell EMC, Intel, as well as a number of major local companies, such as SICO Technology, Al-Kharafi, and New Horizons.
