Egypt's Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and the global BPO provider, Webhelp, have signed a three year agreement to pump EGP 200m into the country's outsourcing industry. The financing will go towards expanding the scope of Webhelp's business centre in Egypt, and contribute to creating 4,800 new job opportunities for highly qualified specialists. These employees will provide outsourcing services to the company's clients around the world. The agreement comes as part of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology's strategy that aims to increase the volume of Egyptian information technology (IT) products and service exports. It also aims to strengthen Egypt's position on the global map of outsourcing and IT services, whilst attracting more foreign investment to this sector. It is important for its contributions to creating intensive job opportunities for Egyptian youth in this field. After signing the agreement, the details of another cooperation deal between Webhelp Egypt and Microsoft were announced. This will see 200 jobs created at Webhelp Egypt, expand the activities of the two international companies in Egypt, and create many job opportunities. Minister Talaat said that Egypt is a distinguished destination for investment in outsourcing and IT services due to its competitive advantages. This is most notably the availability of a supportive environment for investments in addition to the availability of cadres from IT service providers in multiple languages. He announced the launch of an ITIDA has implemented an initiative in the governorates to train young people to master foreign languages, particularly German and French. The initiative aims to meet the requirements of the increasing talent and competencies of outsourcing companies, provided that the implementation of the initiative will start in Qena governorate. For his part, ITIDA CEO Amr Mahfouz said that the cooperation agreement comes as part of the authority's efforts to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) to Egypt. This provides the necessary support to international companies working in various IT fields, indicating that the authority has implemented a marketing campaign abroad during the last period. Webhelp CEO Vincent Bernard said that ITIDA has helped the company in studying the Egyptian market, and provided distinguished support that would boost and expand the country's outsourcing industry. He also said that the company aims to invest more than EGP 200m in the Egyptian market during the next three years. Webhelp is one of the world's leading companies in the field of customer service, and boasts a staff of 70,000 present in 48 countries.
