A World-Class Infrastructure Base

ITIA NATIONIN which three mobile phone networks cover nearly 100% of the country's inhabited land. Where a waterway carries more than 8% of the world's total shipping every year. Where every home with a phone line has dial-up internet access for the price of a local call and a dozen companies compete to offer broadband connections to homes and offices in major urban centers. Well-main­tained highways shift freight and passenger vehicles between cities, towns and resort destinations. Electricity subsidies are ending, but the per-kilowatt hour price remains affordable to consumers and indus­try alike.

You could be forgiven for thinking we were describing a Europe­an economy, but this is Egypt, where investors enjoy not just low la­bor costs, a trained workforce, proximity to major global markets and a unique basket of preferential trade agreements, but solid infrastruc­ture, too.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

Egypt's IT and communications infrastructure is among the best-de­veloped and most competitive in the Middle East and Africa. Today, deregulation, enhanced competition and the export of services are the accepted norms in an ICT sector that is growing at a sustained 25% annually and that has attracted EGP 50 billion in new investment in the past four years.

Recent regulatory measures are accelerating the process: New sub­marine cables have been licensed to consortiums of national and re­gional players; new international gateways for voice and data are in the works: a second fixed-line operator with a WiMAX license will be on­line in 2009. guaranteeing a challenger to current operator Telecom Egypt and introducing commercial WiMAX simultaneously; and the li­censing of triple-play sen ices for voice, data and video is in the works.

The nation is served by three advanced mobile telephone networks, all of which are or will soon be 3.5G. Every home with a landline has dial-up internet access for the price of a local phone call. Egypt now has more than 9 million unique internet users, while 500,000 house­holds subscribe to broadband services and 25,000 more join them ev­ery month.

At least three major urban centers are testing municipal WiMAX high-speed wireless broadband networks. Private businesses, restau­rants and cafes across the country run their own Wi-Fi networks to serve their customers.

The nation's system of postal outlets is being reconfigured as both a business communications network and as a point of contact for the de­livery of important government services. Meanwhile, Smart Village — the premiere technology park in the Middle East, which is home to offices of major national and global ICT players and will soon include a new financial-services district— is set to replicate its success in oth­er Egyptian locations. A new call center park will soon break ground in the upscale Cairo suburb of Maadi in a partnership between the ministries of CIT and Investment.

National fixed-line operator Telecom Egypt (ТЕ) now seizes more than 11 million subscribers with a capacity of over 13.8 million lines. Since the turn of the century, ТЕ has ramped up its competitive me­tabolism and taken strong steps to diversify its revenue stream. It has taken a stake of more than 40% in Vodafone Egypt (one of the nation's three mobile operators) and has spun off subsidiaries that now include the region's most high-profile call center operation, a booming ISP / broadband provider, and joint-venture wireline network in Algeria, to name but a few. Today, the company is working on expansion proj­ects to serve Egypt's growing demand for telecom services, including undersea cables connecting Egypt to the world.

In the mobile communications arena. Mobinil. a subsidiary of" Egypt-based multinational Orascom Telecom in partnership with France Telecom's Orange division, launched in the late 1990s; it was soon followed by what is known today as Vodafone Egypt. The two were joined by Etisalat Misr (a consortium led by Etisalat of the EIAE and including Egypt Post, the National Bank, and the Commercial In­ternational Bank) in 2007.

Today, both Etisalat and Vodafone Egypt have launched robust 3.5G networks and Mobinil will soon follow suit. Combined, the three com­panies have over 32 million subscribers, having added some 10 mil­lion new subscribers in the last year and hitting a penetration rate of more than 42.33%.

Incentive packages have attracted multinationals to Egypt, where they are basing call centers, business-process outsourcing, knowledge-process outsourcing and technical-support operations. They have found Egyptian talent up to the challenge and the nation's telecom in­frastructure of global standard, all while being based in a working en­vironment that — from cost to logistics — helps them gel business done better, faster and cheaper.

The deregulation of the sector has benefited consumers and inves­tors alike, and strategies to improve regional and international con­nectivity, roll out broadband technologies, promote convergence ser­vices and address cyber-security are adding to what has already been achieved

Electricity

Egypt is one of the MENA region's top exporters of electricity, with some 107.5 billion kilowatt hours being generated in 2005/06. a 240% increase over 1991/92. More than 37.900 kilometers of transmission and distribution wires criss-cross the nation, delivering power to in dustry, commercial and residential users alike.

Moreover, Egypt continues to invest mil­lions of dollars each year in the country's electricity grid to shore up high-demand ar­eas in urban centers. As it moves to expand generation capacity in the years ahead, the Egyptian government is now welcoming public-private partnerships in the field.

Rail and Underground Networks

Rail has a long history in Egypt, which was the second country in the world to build out a national railway. Today, some 9,525 kilo­meters of rail lines link major urban centers and industrial clusters with each other and with the nation's port system, ensuring the timely and efficient shipment of goods and passengers across the country.

The next challenge is now underway as the Egyptian government welcomes pro­posals under the public-private partnership framework to build new cargo and rail lines in the decade ahead.

Roads, Bridges and Ports

Egypt continues to build highways and bridges as part of its overall infrastructure plan. With a comprehensive national road­way system. Egypt is also linked by high­way to several of its neighboring countries. Recent infrastructure projects of note in­clude the Ahmed Helmy funnel and the El-Salam Bridge, which connects the Asian and African sides of the SuezCanal.

Today, Egypt has well over 46,500 kilo­meters of roadways, a figure that will grow in the years ahead as the government con­tracts new highways under the public-pri­vate partnership scheme.

As one of the world's commercial and maritime transportation hubs, Egypt is home to more than 15 commercial ports that handled more than 97.5 million tons of cargo in 2005/06. More than 8% of the world's total maritime traffic passes through the Suez Canal each year, includ­ing crude-oil supertankers. Meanwhile, the government is exploring how to increase cargo traffic on the River Nile as an envi­ronmentally friendly way of easing traffic on the nation's roadways.

Meanwhile, Egypt's first privately ran in­ternational airport is operational at Marsa Alam, the new Sharm El-Sheikh Interna­tional Airport is winning rave reviews, and Turkish specialists TAV Airports is current­ly building a world-class Terminal 3 at Cairo International Airport.