The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has met with Spain Secretary of State for the Information Society and the Digital Agenda Francisco de Paula Polo, during his participation in the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2019) in Barcelona.
They discussed enhancing cooperation between the two countries in ICT fields, including smart cities, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and capacity building. This is in addition to building ICT centers of excellence, thus making Egypt a gate to the Spanish technology for all African countries.
They also discussed cooperation, exchange of experiences in electronic services offered to citizens in digital transformation and financial coverage, and how to benefit from the Spanish experience in developing health care services using E-Health technology. This comes in the framework of the project of digitizing the comprehensive health insurance system that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) implements, in cooperation with the Ministries of Health and Finance. They discussed, as well, enhancing cooperation in developing digital games by establishing a forum for Egyptian and Spanish companies working in this field. At the end of the meeting, Talaat invited Polo to participate in the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC), hosted by Egypt in October 2019 in Sharm El Sheikh.
Talaat has also met with Synopsys General Manager Solutions Group, Joachim Kunkel, where they discussed increasing the company’s investments in Egypt and establishing an academy for training and qualifying human calibers. They agreed on training 1000 graduates and senior students on designing electronic circuits, within two years.
Synopsys, the world’s leading company in electronic design automation, is operating in Egypt through its partner, Silicon Vision, specialized in designing wireless communication circuits and electronics.
Furthermore, Talaat has met with Google MENA Managing Director Lino Cattaruzzi. They discussed enhancing cooperation with Google, and represented its future investment plans in Egypt and Africa. The meeting was attended by Google Director of Infrastructure for EMEA Mark Sokol, and Google Strategic Negotiator, Global Infrastructure Jayne Stowell.
Discussions included cooperation in establishing Google Campus in Cairo to provide training programs and technology startup incubators, as Google runs similar headquarters in other capitals including London, Madrid and Berlin. They discussed, as well, the possibility of expanding Google’s business in Egypt through establishing Google Park technology center in Egypt.
In addition, they discussed enhancing cooperation in AI through establishing a research center for Google in Egypt, similar to the one announced in Ghana, which is managed by Google. It includes senior researchers and engineers in the field of automatic learning, dedicated to AI research and applications. It provides innovative solutions to the challenges facing society, especially in health and education.
Moreover, Talaat has met with Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read. They represented Vodafone’s future plans of providing the Internet of things, and cooperation in e-payments, contributing to Egypt plans of the transition into a non-monetary society and enhancing financial inclusion. The meeting was attended by Vodafone Egypt CEO Alexandre Froment-Curtil.
Discussions included highlighting the importance of improving communication services offered to citizens, as well as, Vodafone’s plans to provide communication services inside closed complexes, especially after signing a license with the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) during February. This is in addition to representing Vodafone’s future vision to provide local voice call services. The meeting was attended by a number of executive officials from MCIT, NTRA, the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), and Telecom Egypt (TE).
