Economy Middle East speaks exclusively to H.E. Dr. Amr Talaat, Egypt’s Minister of Communication and Information Technology, on the growth of the information and communication technology (ICT) market in Egypt. Dr. Talaat highlights the role the market plays in Egypt’s economy and the ministry’s contributions and support to the sector. Dr. Talaat also sheds light on the ministry’s efforts in attracting international investments to develop the country’s key sectors.
Egypt’s exports of outsourcing services will reach $9 billion in 2026. Which markets has the country captured so far?
Egypt has embarked on a strategy for building a digital society or digital Egypt as we term it since 2019. One of the prime pillars of the strategy was to enhance Egypt as a strategic offshoring destination for countries across the world.
Since then, we focused intensely on capacity building and expanding our talent pool in terms of numbers and also in terms of the diversification of disciplines that we train our youth to gain experience in.
The geographies we’re aiming for are across the world. I’m delighted and proud to say that we’ve been successful in attracting companies from all continents including countries that are known to be the leading countries in ICT technologies. Also, countries that are known to be leaders in offshoring now, because of their great success throughout the years, have a skill gap that they need to replenish.
Egypt does loom as a very attractive destination for those countries to depend on in expanding their skill through Egyptians residing in Egypt.
What will be the impact on Egypt’s GDP?
Currently, the contribution of the ICT market to the GDP is 5.5 percent, up from 3.2 percent four years ago.
The way we have achieved this is by maintaining a growth rate of 16 percent year-on-year for the past five years. We’re proud in the ICT sector in Egypt to say that we have been the fastest growing sector in the country for the past five years steadily.
By doing this, we increased our contribution to 5.5 percent. We’re aspiring to reach 8 percent in the next three years.
Tremendous job opportunities will be created for the youth, but what other sectors can the youth seek job opportunities in?
There are job opportunities in all sectors in Egypt. Let me tell you how in the ICT sector we were enabling our youth to compete in the labor market whether domestically or regionally. It is by building their ICT skills. ICT skills are not confined to people who want to work in the ICT field. I believe it’s now a common denominator for everybody.
You cannot be a good doctor, architect, or artist without knowing how to exploit technology and leverage its advantages within your domain of expertise. So, what we’re doing is we’re offering training initiatives for everybody. Whether it is for those who want to work in the ICT sector or those who want to exploit ICT merits to advance in other careers.
What is Egypt doing to encourage entrepreneurship and expand the ICT sector?
Entrepreneurship is another strategic pillar in our strategy. We’re trying to forge an ecosystem that is conducive to entrepreneurship and creative thinking. We have established what we call CREATIVA centers. CREATIVA centers are incubators and training centers across the country.
Egypt is divided into 27 administrative divisions that we call governorates. The vision was to have an incubator and training center, a CREATIVA center, in every governorate. We started back in 2019 with six governorates. Now, we have 20 centers in 20 different governorates across the country.
In 2024, we’re going to add around eight more to have one in each governorate. The function and objectives of these incubators, the CREATIVA centers, are to receive entrepreneurs and those who have ideas or even those who don’t have ideas but are aspiring to be entrepreneurs.
We lead them through the value chain, starting from ideation camps to business training, to technical training, to marketing training, to seed funding to come up with a minimum viable product to matchmaking with investors who would then contribute to their startups.
The entire value chain that is known in the entrepreneurial world is offered to our youth in these centers that we now have all over the country. Any entrepreneur, or young man or woman who wants to be an entrepreneur, can go to these centers and receive the training. Then, they can start interacting with our teams there.
We have all the multinational companies sponsoring the startups in the centers and lending them technological knowledge and their products to build their solutions. They can derive value from that to make sure that they can compete in the startup markets regionally, not only domestically.
Has it yielded? Indeed I believe it did. Egypt is consistently one of the top three countries in the MENA region in the number of startups every year. We also lead in the volume of funds that our startup market has been able to attract in terms of investments in the past few years.
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How do you encourage international investment into the country to develop those key sectors?
Partnership is the word. We partner with every investor who considers Egypt as a destination for investing. Since the very early stages of not doing the actual investment but considering investing in Egypt, we have partnered with the entity in question.
I have a full-blown organization that reports to the Ministry of ICT which is responsible for partnering with all companies who want to choose Egypt as a destination for their offshoring centers for operating. We partner with companies to cover the Egyptian market or to cover the regional market.
Any company that sees Egypt as the choice for their investment, we’re ready to partner with them.
About Dr. Amr Talaat
Dr. Amr Talaat has served as Egypt’s Minister of Information and Communication Technology since June 14, 2018. With 30 years of experience in communications and information technology, Dr. Talaat is leading Egypt’s digital transformation.
Dr. Talaat leads the mission of Egypt’s Digital Transformation Initiative, 2020. He is confident of what immersive technologies can offer to serve as a strong arm that empowers vital sectors of the economy and realizes the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030.
Before becoming minister, Dr. Talaat joined IBM – Egypt where he held various managerial positions. He became IBM Country General Manager and served as a Territory Manager since 2005. He managed the company’s Systems and Technology Group as well as its Business Partner Organization.
In addition, Dr. Talaat is an Adjunct Professor at Cairo University, teaching marketing and sales strategies and tactics, organizational behavior, and strategic management. He is an honorary member of the Cairo University ICT Board and the Chairman of AmCham’s ICT Committee.
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