CAIRO - Egypt is poised to emerge as a major player in the information economy, according to UNCTAD's first edition ever of Information Communications and Technology (ICT) policy review of the country. At a special session in Geneva, the UNCTAD celebrated the announce of results of the ICT Policy Review for Egypt as the report mentions that Egypt could emerge as a major player in the global information economy. The event was attended by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mohamed Salem and Ambassador Hisham Badr, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations in addition to a participation of a high-level Egyptian Delegation and members of the Egyptian Mission (to Geneva). Salem, hailed the UNCTAD recommendations, stating that he thinks of "2011 as the dawn of a new era for ICT in Egypt, with even more Egyptians joining and embracing the information society as we continue to work to forge a knowledge economy”. Amongst the attendees of the event are; large number of Ambassadors and members of diplomatic missions resident in Geneva in addition to a number of representatives of international organisations such as; the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the European Union (EU), the World Bank, the World Trade Centre, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) as well as representatives of some international ICT companies. The UNCTAD co-operated with Ministry of ICT to conduct an ICT policy review model. It is considered the first report of its kind of policy review which was adopted by the Egyptian Government over the past five years. The review was prepared in almost one year and half by a group of experts of UNCTAD in co-operation with the Ministry. The study is based on a large number of studies, information and local reports in addition to a large number of interviews with economic experts and affiliated organisations at the Ministry as well as international and local private sector companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the field of ICT. The review, also, included interviews with the leaders of ministries and governmental bodies in Egypt to find out the impact and coverage of ICT plans and strategies of these entities. Draganov, Deputy Secretary General – UNCTAD and Anne Miroux, Director of UNCTAD Technology and Logistics Division commended on the policies taken by Egypt to promote ICT sector. Among the top of these policies; liberalisation of telecommunications, human development policies, habilitation of cadres specialised in the field of communications and information technology in order to work in international, local and regional markets. The review referred to Egypt's success which has been achieved in exporting ICT services and the strategic plans adopted by the government in co-operation with the Egyptian private sector companies so that Egypt held an international position in business process outsourcing exports map. Therefore, Egypt has surged from the 12th position in 2007 to the 6th in 2009 and the 4th in 2011. The Ambassador for the Mission of Finland in Geneva pointed out that this is the first report of its kind and Egypt plays a leading role in the ICT field in the region. He further added that the results of this report would contribute in building Egypt's economy, ICT and other sectors related to this field. During the event, Singapore's Ambassador tackled Egypt's mobile phone market which is considered as one of the largest and most important markets in the Arab region as Egypt has made significant progress in this field. She has been attributed to the fact that Egypt was able to develop the infrastructure system through the optical fiber cables. Furthermore, she requested that Egypt should give great importance to education in the next phase and to shifting towards export high value-added services. At the end of the event, the representative to the United Nations in Geneva and the representative to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) stressed that Egypt has played a leading role in the field of communication and information technology. This is due to its available possibilities as well as the institutional and human resources capacity and this encouraged ITU to choose Egypt to open its regional office in order to serve the Arab region as a whole.
