Egypt's Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy has met with Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat to discuss a number of joint cooperation files under the "Decent Life" initiative. The discussions took place as part of the two ministries' current initiatives to provide job opportunities for young people. These opportunities fall as part of the "Your Work Near Your Village", "Your work from Home", and "Our Future is Digital" initiatives. The initiatives will be implemented as part of the national project to develop Egypt's villages, under the "Decent Life" initiative set up by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. The initiatives aim to qualify youth of both genders in the targeted villages for the free labour market, and for remote work inside and outside Egypt. This also aims to provide them with job opportunities with information technology (IT) companies, to have a monthly income and a decent life. Shaarawy said that his ministry is implementing the "Your Business in Your Village" initiative in a number of governorates. As part of this, cooperation and coordination will take place with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. For his part, Talaat said that his ministry is taking part in the presidential initiative "A Dignified Life" by implementing vital and important projects to develop all communication networks in the targeted villages. This includes replacing and renewing communication lines with more efficient ones, developing mobile phone networks, and developing exchanges and post offices. It also covers transforming them into centres to provide a large package of services to citizens. Talaat added that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is also implementing projects to automate government services. These will be established in every local district in villages to equip the developed technological centre. Coordination will also take place between the two ministries and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development to link these technological centres in the governorates and other centres in cities. He said that it is possible to cooperate with the Ministry of Local Development to implement the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology's "Work from Home" initiative. This also includes the "Our Digital Future" initiative, which was started about a year ago and aims to train 100,000 young people in specialties of increasing demand in the labour market. The training applies to three levels of applied technology training in e-marketing, website development software, data science and analysis, as well as professional training in the field of free digital work. Talaat said that, so far, about 40,000 young people have graduated from more than 50 government and private universities across Egypt. He indicated that the initiative has helped a large number of young people improve their career prospects, and enabled them to gain job opportunities in global and local freelance platforms. It has also helped them achieve a monthly income of up to $2,000. The minister added that there are many success stories for people who were involved in this initiative. These beneficiaries were university graduates who were able to acquire applied skills in the fields of technology and self-employment. These skills helped them qualify to compete for digital job opportunities available globally and locally.
