The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat, during his participation in the 22nd Arab-German Business Forum in Berlin, as part of a ministerial delegation headed by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, has held a number of meetings with officials of German institutions and companies.
They discussed benefiting from the German expertise and enhancing cooperation in ICTs, in particular, Artificial Intelligence (AI), capacity building, and Research and Development (R&D).
Talaat held a meeting with Vice President for Strategic Development at the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) Angela Ittel. TU Berlin is one of the largest technical universities in Berlin, and is known for its advanced programs in engineering, computer science, and mechanical engineering. A branch of TU Berlin was established in El Gouna, Egypt.
The two sides discussed offering TU Berlin - El Gouna Master programs at the Knowledge City in the New Administrative Capital and the technology parks in Assiut and Beni Suef.
In addition, the ICT Minister met with Vice President for Education, Digitalization, and Sustainability Hans-Ulrich Heiss. They discussed establishing partnership in building youth capacity in AI techniques and data science.
This is in addition to discussing establishing partnership between the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and Faculty IV - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at TU Berlin, in the framework of ITIDA Information Technology Academia Collaboration (ITAC) program that aims at establishing strong ties between industry and research institutions to provide innovative products to serve the society.
These partnership programs are expected to include conducting joint applied research in different areas, including data analysis, computing services, and sustainable energy systems.
Moreover, Talaat met with a delegation from the Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (Bitkom), headed by AI expert and Managing Director for Law and Security Susanne Dehmel. Bitkom is a corporate umbrella comprising over 2600 international, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), and startups, specializing in digital economy.
During the meeting, the two sides discussed cooperation in introducing AI in various sectors, including healthcare, agriculture, and manufacturing, in addition to transferring technology pertaining to different programs and services provided by Bitkom member companies.
They, also, discussed potential cooperation between Bitkom and ITIDA for sharing the former’s expertise in ICT industry. This is in addition to cooperating in organizing joint events and missions to introduce and promote Egypt’s competitive potentials in ICTs, and the privileges offered by ITIDA to attract foreign investments in the Egyptian ICT sector, especially in establishing Centers of Excellence (CoE) and joint service centers.
Furthermore, the two sides discussed organizing joint events for German companies and their Egyptian counterparts exporting services to Germany, to establish partnerships and increase Egypt’s ICT exports.
Talaat, in addition, met with Ada Health CEO Daniel Nathrath. Ada Health is a specialized company in developing healthcare services using AI tools. The two sides presented areas of cooperation and discussed establishing an AI research center in Egypt.
The meetings were attended by ITIDA Acting CEO Hala El Gohary, and the ICT Minister’s Advisor for AI Golestan Radwan.
