Egypt to become prominent member of technology market
Egypt, Economics, 9/16/2000

Egypt is to become a prominent member of the global technology market through a national technological development plan , Minister of Communications, Information and Technology Ahmed Nazif said adding that this comes in conformity with last year's initiative of President Hosni Mubarak.

Addressing the third day of the Euromoney conference currently held in Cairo, Nazif said that Egypt has a focus on the information technology (IT) field.

Egypt possesses the largest infrastructure in the communications field in the region, with its 7 million telephone lines that cover the whole country, he added.

Reviewing Egypt's national technological development plan, Nazif said that Egypt has focused on promoting its national networks and expects that an extra two million telephone lines will be added by 2001.

In a bid to implement the Ministry's ambitious plan, Nazif said that Egypt adopted a new framework for licensing and pricing telecommunications services.

"It also plans to reduce tariffs by 75 percent and to issue new licenses for companies providing services in communications such as mobile phones, pay phones, and Internet services", he said.

Nazif announced that the Government plans to reduce tariffs on local lease lines by 60 percent for the sake of providing cheaper Internet services for companies and individuals. "We are now moving from monopoly to more competitive services," he pointed out.

"It is planned to provide IT training in public and private schools for 20,000 students this year, Nazif elaborated.

"Moreover, the Government plans to encourage businessmen invest in this field, as Egypt has the largest market that increases 30 percent a year", he said.

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