Information and communications technology (ICT) was the center of discussion at AmCham Egypt's monthly luncheon on January 5, which featured guest speaker Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ahmed Nazif.

AmCham president Taher Helmy, introducing the guest speaker, said promoting ICT could be a "catalyst for business" and the means by which Egypt can ensure that it will be able to compete on a global scale. Helmy noted that since the ICT ministry was created in 2000, awareness of ICT has expanded extraordinarily. Internet users in Egypt, he said, increased from 400,000 in October 1999 to 2.7 million now. Over the same period, the number of telephone lines increased from 4.9 million to 8.7 million while mobile phone users jumped from 600,000 to 5.7 million.

Nazif focused his discussion on the outcome of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), held in Geneva in December. Bridging the digital divide both between and within countries was the main issue raised at the summit, which Nazif and president Hosni Mubarak attended on behalf of Egypt. Nazif noted that in Egypt, many barriers still exist to bridging the divide, especially between rural and urban populations.

However, Egypt has made "exponential" progress in ICT, Nazif stressed, pointing to improved quality of the telephone network, a boom in mobile phone users with an estimated 100,000 new subscribers each month, and the introduction of key public-private ICT partnerships, including the 'Free Internet' and 'PC for Every Home' initiatives and the opening of 615 IT clubs.

Another critical issue raised at the summit revolved around Internet governance, and defining the complicated role of the government and the private sector in controlling Internet access.

Nazif discussed Egypt's latest ICT white paper, the Egyptian Information Society Initiative, which is geared towards promoting e-learning, e-government, e-health, e-culture and e-business - essential components of an information society.

On the e-government front, a portal for government services already exists, while in the realm of e-learning, the ministry is looking for private sector support to provide 400,000 additional PCs to 7000 schools by 2007. A telemedicine network is on the road to developing e-health, while an electronic cultural preservation center has been set up at the Smart Village. E-business, an area of particular interest to the audience, is also in the spotlight, with the upcoming e-signature law and initiatives to tackle cyber crime.

Looking globally, Nazif argued that the digital divide between countries would be dismantled naturally if ICT is given the opportunity to grow unhindered, in a deregulated environment. Currently, there are many barriers placed by developed countries towards outsourcing to cost-effective talent in developing countries like Egypt. Egypt's large pool of ICT talent will boost the industry if such barriers are broken down, he said. "We do have the potential to become more competitive in many ways," the Minister commented.

In this regard, the ministry has a goal of boosting exports from $150 million annually to $500 million annually within three years.

Meanwhile, discussions on ICT development will continue to be at the fore of the government's agenda in the lead-up to the second WSIS summit, scheduled for 2005 in Tunisia. In May, Nazif said, Cairo will host the Telecom Africa summit.

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