Newly formed Egyptian ministry announces plan to boost CIT exports
Egypt, Economics, 2/22/2003

The newly formed Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has established a national plan designed to help Egypt boost its CIT exports, in order to enhance the national economy.

The plan will see the establishment of technology hubs and hi-tech industrial areas; the development of the skills base for software engineering by providing postgraduate training courses; and the forming of joint-venture partnerships with international CIT companies for strategic alliances and outsourcing.

"Egypt faces a big challenge in that, within a matter of about five years, our public universities will not have the physical capacity to absorb the annual high-school graduates," one CIT expert told the Egyptian Mail.

Hence the importance of e-learning, which can overcome the problems caused by the limited size of the educational facilities that currently exist in Egypt.

Because it believes that enhancing local exports is a matter of life and death, the MCIT is backing and supporting all initiatives for increasing software exports. "

ÊÊÊ The recently created E-Learning Publishers Union [ELPU] is the first union of its kind to promote this belief," ELPU Chairman Alaa el-Agamawi said at the union's inaugural meeting.

El-Agamawi went on to say that the ELPU comprises 14 IT and software companies, which established the union within three months of first discussing the possibility.

The idea sprang from the desire of these companies to turn Cairo into a software development hub for the region, says Adel Khalifa, deputy chairman of the ELPU.

This unique union will help facilitate self-learning among students and encourage them to think creatively, providing them with more computer skills, so they can solve their problems faster, adds el-Agamawi, indicating that the MCIT's programme, 'A Computer in Every Home', supported the union's idea, encouraging its members to expedite procedures for its foundation.

"The ELPU plans to decrease the digital divide between advanced and developing countries," he continues.

The recently created union will market all kinds of educational software, produced not only in Egypt, but in the whole Arab and Muslim world.

The idea behind the union is to increase the number of computers being sold, allowing consumers to get a 'bouquet' of original software programmes at very affordable prices, explains ELPU Secretary-General Wael Nawara, indicating that Egypt is currently considering the draft Law on Intellectual Property Rights to safeguard copyrights and combat piracy.

"Consumers should buy original software programmes and they should be aware that they come at a price, otherwise the local IT industry will never survive or flourish," says Nawara, while Khalifa believes that offering original educational software at affordable prices is the only way for local producers to promote their products.

The ELPU has designed a catalogue detailing educational software programmes under a variety of titles - religious, entertainment, cultural, audio and reference - and the user is free to select whichever programme he or she wants, explains Nawara.

At the ELPU's inaugural celebrations, the MCIT announced that it would award the best locally produced educational software programmes LE100,000 every year and that it would also offer similar prize money to the Egyptian software company that notches up the biggest volume of exports.

The ministerial awards will encourage ELPU members to export their products, as well as tempt more of the 40 firms working in this field in Egypt to become members of the union.

Previous Stories:
  1st Egyptian investment promotion office opens in London   (2/20/2003)
  Egypt's exports to Hong Kong up by 21 per cent   (2/18/2003)
  Egypt the highest share profit rate in developing markets   (2/17/2003)

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