Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Yasser El Kady, showcased the key achievements and future vision of the ICT sector till 2025 during his participation at the World Government Summit held in Dubai from February 11 to 14.
The Minister spoke in the Ministerial Session "Technology outlook for development in 2030: bridging the gap in the Arab government action", organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA) and the World Government Summit Organization in Dubai.
The Ministerial Session discussed the opportunities offered by technology and innovation in the Arab region to enhance the level of smart government services. It also discussed national and sectoral plans to take advantage of these services, and possible means to address challenges, thus allowing Arab governments to implement their plans and achieve the Sustainable Development 2030 agenda.
El Kady showcased Egypt's vision for the transition to a digital society by adapting ICT tools to find innovative technological solutions to key issues. The most important of these are national database creation, linking and cleansing to enable decision makers make sound decisions based on clear information.
This is in addition to providing the necessary technical support to ministries and various governmental bodies and institutions to provide quality electronic services to all citizens and improve the efficiency and transparency of government operations.
The ICT Minister also talked about the future vision of the ICT sector, which is to increase the contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP from 3.5% to 8%, since the volume of technological exports reached 3.26 billion dollars in 2017.
This is in addition to developing technological industries to increase domestic production and exports, through establishing a number of electronics factories, hosting five global big data centers and completing the establishment of technology parks and the City of Knowledge in the new Administrative Capital to be a model in the transition to "smart cities" in Egypt.
He added that within the framework of the State's plan to improve the efficiency of services provided to citizens, more than 400 integrated technology centers will be deployed to serve the citizens in the different governorates of Egypt in conjunction with the transition to a digital society.
The 2018 Summit was held in Dubai under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and the Ruler of the Emirate of Dubai. The Summit is an international platform for exchanging knowledge and expertise on the work of governments, technology and innovation.
