Yasser El-Kady, minister of communications and information technology, said that the ICT sector achieved growth rates of 14%, year-over-year, at the end of the first quarter of this year. He added that the achieved growth was 9.5% for the communications sector and 4.5% for the information technology sector. He pointed out that last fiscal year, the sector took the lead of the country's economic growth, pushed by the investments of companies and the communication licenses issued by the government. El-Kady explained that by the end of 2020, Egypt's digital transformation will be announced after the implementation of the strategy to digitise the country, pointing out that by the end of 2019, all government services will be offered electronically. "We are in discussions with our partners from international companies and institutions to activate the implementation of this important strategy, especially since that the ICT sector has become the common denominator in the development of any other sector after the completion of the process to provide 4G services," he said. He also added that Egypt is encouraging e-industries. "Now, there exists the first mobile phone to be manufactured in Egypt and challenges were turned into opportunities," the minister said. "There are strong trends towards manufacturing tablets. We have international companies that continue to support the government to manufacture electronics." "The support the sector receives from the state's leadership is great. The sector is promising and is one of the most important sectors and the main engines of the national economy. It has achieved leaps in the growth rates over the past two years by up to 12.5%. This is unprecedented growth. It also contributes to the GDP by over 3.5%. The sector achieved exports worth $3.26bn, with an over $1.7bn increase," the minister added.
