Communication and Information Technology

Here in Egypt, major multinationals in­cluding Intel and France Telecom's Or­ange are developing products for export to the global market. Egyptian call cen­ters are not just catering to the offshore needs of hundreds of major multinationals such as Microsoft and Oracle; In the case of regional leaders Xceed and Teleperfor-mance. they're also delivering training and certification for the global outsourcing in­dustry itself.

The list goes on — as you would expect from a sector that has grown at a sustained 25% per year, attracting EGP 50 billion in new investments in the last four years. No wonder Egypt ranked thirteenth on AT. Kearney's 2007 Global Services Location index — it's a testament to Egypt's educated, multilingual workforce; to the nation's exceptional ICT infrastructure; to the impact of train­ing programs; and to the value of unwavering government support to industry.

Home-Grown Talent

While Egypt is proud to be home to the local and regional offices of major multinationals, it is even prouder to have incubated local talent. Egypt-based Orascom Telecom (OT), established in 1998, is among die largest and fastest-growing emerging-market mobile network operators with more than 70 million subscribers in coun­tries including Algeria, Egypt. Pakistan. Bangladesh. Tunisia and Zimbabwe. In early 2008, Orascom Telecom won the first-ever li­cense to operate a mobile network in North Korea. Wind, OT's sister company under the Weather Investments umbrella, is now: a growing European player with mobile, fixed line and data net­works in Italy and Greece.

A number of promising Egyptian software developers have also started penetrating international markets. Companies including ITWorx. ITsoft, Sakhr, Harf and Arabize are now exporting soft­ware ranging from Arabic-language solutions to plugins and mod­ules for some of the world's most popular software packages. Pro­grammers at ITWorx are developing solutions for the regional and global telecommunications and banking sectors — and software for Microsoft, Adobe and Corel. Major multinationals are develop­ing products here for export to the global market.

Meanwhile, the government is incubating the next generation of Even Indian companies are outsourcing to Egypt's burgeoning IT sector.

technology entrepreneurs at the Smart Village through the national business plan competition.

There are also a handful of Egyptian companies that have be­gun to conduct their own high-tech R&D. Young developers with graduate degrees from top global institutions are creating the next generation of wireless technologies at SySDSofl. an SME that spe­cializes in developing cutting-edge wireless communications tech­nologies for global standards such as WiMAX. Within Egypt's ICT development strategy, virtual R&D centers of excellence have been established in niche areas such as data mining and wireless technologies. Other support comes from the private-sector Tech­nology Development Venture Capital Fund.

More man 50% of the ICT business community in Egypt is comprised of SMEs — in the short and medium terms, they will be the key drivers of growth in the sector.

A True Partnership

Incentive packages have attracted global multinationals in in­dustries including call centers, business-process outsourc­ing and knowledge-process outsourcing to open shop in Egypt with promises of expansion and further investments. They have found that Egypt's talented young workforce and world-class telecom infrastructure help them do business faster, better and cheaper.

Over the past decade, the groundwork for the sector's explosive growth has been laid through a series of megaprojects designed to create a globally competitive ICT industry in Egypt. Key to this process: close cooperation between gov­ernment and industry stakeholders. This partnership created the nation's robust technology and communications infra­structure and today serves as the basis for the ongoing commitment to public-private partnerships in all sector-related develop­ments and initiatives.

Underpinning the success of domestic and multinational players alike: a quali­fied base of human resources, a bouquet of enabling laws and a solid infrastructure at the crossroads of major global subma­rine cables.

Each year, 250,000 university graduates enter the workforce; a great many are im­mediately employable, while others take advantage of government-backed training programs to find jobs in die ICT sector — part of a proven government plan that is seeing heavy investment flowing into both professional IT education and training for the basic needs of the industry. The na­tion's rock-solid IT infrastructure includes three robust mobile networks and wide­spread access to broadband (see page 14 for more details).

Finally, enabling laws regulating every­thing from telecommunications and labor to e-signatures and the protection of both intellectual property and the rights of in­vestors provide local and global competi­tors with a solid, rights-based foundation from which to do business.

 Smart Village

Smart Village is Egypt's first fully operational tech­nology park. Inaugurated in 2003, it is a clear dem­onstration of the sector's development and ma­turity. From government headquarters to global ICT multinationals, from the local private sector to innovation centers, incu­bators, and training insti­tutions, Smart Village is an all-inclusive communi­ty. Home to international ICT giants such as Oracle, Microsoft, Motorola, Vodafone and Alcatel, it is the physical expression of the international industry's faith in Egypt's promise.

Today, other countries are looking to replicate the concept and create productive ICT communities of their own. The concept of an IT cluster has been so successful that it has expanded to include other business segments including financial services: In 2009, the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange is expected to relocate to SmartVillage along with other financial institutions and major national and regional investment banks and private equity firms, creating the nation's first Financial Zone.

Building on the success of the Smart Village and serving the aims of Egypt's export strategy, the ministries of CIT and Investment are establishing a call-center facility in the upscale Cairo suburb of Maadi and are looking to replicate the model in other parts of Egypt. At the same time, intensive training and capacity-building programs are taking place, designed to ensure that local, regional and multinational players alike can find the qualified staff they need to be globally competitive from their base in Egypt.