Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly opened Cairo ICT'24, the 28th edition of the Egypt International ICT Exhibition and Conference for the Middle East and Africa, on behalf of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. The event, themed "The Next Wave," is being held at the Egypt International Exhibition Center from 17 to 20 November. The exhibition, under the President's patronage, features government ministries and agencies, local and international companies, technology experts, leaders, and innovators. Among those attending the opening ceremony were Dr Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister for Human Development and Minister of Health and Population; Ayman Ashour, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research; Counselor Adnan Fangary, Minister of Justice; Mohamed Farid Saleh, Chairperson of the Financial Regulatory Authority; Ibrahim El-Segini, Head of the Consumer Protection Agency; and Osama Kamal, Chairperson of Trade Fairs International, the event organiser. Several ambassadors and officials from relevant ministries and agencies were also present. Following the opening, Prime Minister Madbouly toured the exhibition, beginning at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology's pavilion. Minister Amr Talaat detailed Egypt's Digital Strategy, which aims to empower citizens through digital services, create digital economy jobs, and foster digital innovation. He highlighted key citizen-focused pillars: simplifying access to government digital services; enabling digital economy employment; encouraging entrepreneurship and supporting digital innovation; and providing efficient digital infrastructure with broad internet access. Talaat also described the strategy's regulatory framework, including legislation to govern the sector and protect users, along with regulations for domestic and foreign investment and partnerships with the private sector and civil society. He showcased key digital transformation projects, including the Digital Egypt platform (with 8m registered users), the comprehensive health insurance digitization project, the company formation platform, and the remote litigation system. The minister also highlighted AI projects under the national AI strategy, such as applications for early glaucoma detection (93% accuracy), diabetic retinopathy detection (over 95% accuracy), and breast cancer detection. He emphasised the ministry's support for digital innovation and entrepreneurship across governorates, noting Egypt's ranking among the top three in the MENA region, with over 600 tech-based startups. He cited the establishment of 23 Digital Egypt innovation centres (of a planned 32 across 27 governorates) and a 25-fold increase in the digital capacity-building grants budget between 2018/19 and 2023/24.
The number of trainees rose from 4,000 to almost 400,000 during this period, aiming for 500,000 (50% female) this fiscal year. Training programmes target all ages, including initiatives for children and schoolchildren (Barameem and Ashbal Masr el-Ragamy), We Schools for applied technology, university education through Egypt's Information Technology University, and graduate programmes (Rowad and Banat Masr el-Ragamy), with further programmes developing freelance skills and training independent professionals through the National Telecommunications Institute and the Information Technology Institute, and empowering people with disabilities. Talaat also reviewed the outsourcing sector's development, noting over 145,000 specialists and more than 195 outsourcing centres supporting over 175 companies exporting digital services internationally. This includes 52 European, 49 North American, 10 East Asian, 21 Arab Gulf, 5 African, and 59 Egyptian companies. These centres comprise 80 software development, 68 embedded systems and electronics design, and 48 contact centre services, with over 11,000 specialists in electronics and embedded systems design. During the pavilion tour, Talaat highlighted key ICT sector indicators: annual growth exceeding 16%; a 5.8% contribution to GDP (up from 3.2% in 2014); a top African ranking for fixed internet speed (76.4 Mbps); a 49-place improvement in the Government AI Readiness Index (from 111th in 2019 to 62nd in 2023); and an upgrade to Group A in the Government Digital Transformation Readiness Index (from B in 2020 and C in 2018). He also detailed the ministry's projects under the "Decent Life" presidential initiative to develop rural Egypt, serving over 50m citizens in 4,500 villages. This involves connecting fibre optic cables to 9.3m buildings, upgrading and constructing 4,000 mobile towers, promoting digital literacy for approximately 490,000 citizens, and developing 1,700 post offices. Licences were granted to four companies with $675m in investment. Cairo ICT features two halls. The first showcases government agencies, including the Egyptian Post (highlighting its enhanced role in digital transformation and financial inclusion, with 4,000 of 4,600 post offices upgraded); the "A New Beginning for Building the Egyptian Human" presidential initiative (highlighting technology's role in education, health, employment, and early childhood); the Ministry of Higher Education (showcasing digital transformation in universities, digital examination systems, and technology awareness); the Financial Regulatory Authority (demonstrating efforts to achieve insurance inclusion through digital applications); and the Central Bank of Egypt (presenting digital transformation efforts and a live demonstration of card-based mobile payment). This hall also features several government digital transformation companies showcasing technologies and platforms supporting digital transformation in collaboration with the government sector. The second hall features the National Telecom Regulatory Authority, showcasing improved communications services, efforts to launch 5G services (following the granting of licences to four companies with $675m in investment), a 46% increase in frequency capacity over six years to improve mobile services, and a 61% increase in mobile towers over six years to improve coverage across Egypt. It also showcases mobile and information technology companies, displaying 5G applications, mobile service development efforts, cloud computing applications, and efforts to develop Egypt's data centre industry.
