The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has received the Ambassador of India to Egypt Rahul Kulshreshth, in Smart Village, to discuss cooperation means between the two countries in the ICT field.
The meeting discussed promoting the investments of Indian companies specialized in electronics manufacturing and designing, providing an enabling environment for them to have presence in Egypt through the new technology parks to serve the Middle East region, in light of the measures taken by the State to create an appropriate environment for attracting foreign investments.
During the meeting, Talaat underlined the depth of Egyptian-Indian historical relations. He pointed out that there are a number of ongoing projects aiming to develop the ICT sector and other sectors within the framework of the State’s strategy for the transition to a digital society. He referred to his keenness to attract Indian ICT companies. The ICT Minister also highlighted Egypt's interest in the areas of technological innovation, entrepreneurship, technology incubators, searching for the best programs that support integrating young people with academic institutions to turn their ideas into technological solutions and real projects. This is in addition to exchanging experiences in the field of financial inclusion.
Talaat stated that talks with the Indian side were fruitful and constructive. They discussed cooperation in the field of establishing, developing and managing smart villages through cooperating with India's Software Technology Park, as well as the possibility of arranging a visit to be paid by specialists from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) to India for this purpose.
For his part, Kulshreshth welcomed the enhancement of cooperation between the two countries in all fields especially ICTs. He highlighted the significance of Egypt and the confidence that the Indian investor attaches to the Egyptian economy, since the Indian investments in Egypt reach around three billion dollars in 2017.
The Indian Ambassador said that a number of projects are being implemented in India with the aim of bridging the digital divide, improving government services in marginalized and poorest areas and achieving financial inclusion.
Kulshreshth also encourages MCIT to benefit from the facilitations offered by the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank) to finance projects involving supplying Indian equipment, goods and services.
During the meeting, an agreement on the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries on cybersecurity was signed. It aimed at exchanging expertise; enhancing cooperation in the field of cybersecurity technology in relation to the activities of the emergency response team; and exchanging information on policies and best practices in this field. This is in addition to benefiting from establishing a center for standard testing and certification in cybersecurity in Egypt, building capacities and exchanging experts in the field of human resources, as well as cooperating in research and development areas.
In addition, the meeting highlighted the importance of enhancing cooperation in the various training fields through establishing joint training programs between the two sides. In this regard, the Indian Ambassador underscored India's interest in providing MCIT trainees with the largest number of training courses, held under the Indian Technical & Economic Cooperation Program (ITEC) 2018-2019.
At the end of the meeting, the ICT Minister invited the Indian ICT Minister to visit Egypt to discuss enhancing cooperation between the two countries in fields of mutual interest and sign the MoU on cooperation in cybersecurity areas.
