Ehab Said — Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the General Division for Communications, Electronic Payments, and Financial Services at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce in Egypt (FEDCOC) — praised the political leadership's role in transforming Egypt into a regional centre for digital services. He also hailed the efforts of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in inviting international companies to establish a presence in Egypt, along with fostering local manufacturing and localising industry. This was evident in his continuous directives to the government, in addition to his sponsorship and adoption of the 'Egypt Manufactures Electronics Initiative.' Said added that the unprecedented investment incentives and tax and customs exemptions on production components and raw materials prompted two of the largest international companies — Nokia and Vivo — to manufacture their products in Egypt, which will generate job opportunities for Egyptians, which the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology qualified after creating a new promising generation of skilled workers. He explained explained that the localisation of the electronics industry and its supplies is among the priorities of the state and the ministry, stressing that manufacturing about 1.5m mobile phones in Egypt annually will lead to reducing shipping costs and imports for these strategic products for citizens, in addition to preserving the country's stock of USD. Said also pointed out that Egypt is a promising and large market that boast 100 million mobile phone users. He explained that the volume of investments in the mobile market in Egypt exceeds EGP 100bn annually, and the total value of sales of smart phones is about EGP 40bn per year. Furthermore, he said that the mobile phone market witnessed a major slow-down over the last period, as imports declined due to several global crises He stressed that the policies of international companies have changed in favour of making Egypt an export hub to Africa, which has about 1.5 billion consumers. Additionally, Said indicated that a number of other international companies will soon begin manufacturing in Egypt, pointing out that the state plans to transform Egypt into a major manufacturing hub for electronic products and home appliances.
