Eng. Atef Helmy, Egypt’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Minister, has asserted that Egypt is ranked second in submarine cables globally which pass through its territory with 18 maritime cables , pointing out that Egypt is seizing 16% of the total cables globally.
The Minister has emphasized on the sidelines of Cairo ICT preparatory conference concerning cloud computing that the Ministry seeks throughout its recently published five-year strategy of 2013-2017, to focus on the current available infrastructure so as to establish database centers depend on cloud computing.
The Minister has pointed out that the strategy activates Digital socio-economic development in Egypt ,strengthen its geographical location to become a global hub for Internet services and to attract foreign investments.
The strategy further will create new technological zone across governorates such as El Mansoura, Assiut and Aswan as well as enhancing the technological zone in Ismailia, along with supporting training, research and development, innovation centers in addition to expanding outsourcing industry.
Helmy has confirmed that the Ministry is working to put a plan in order to support and establish database centers based on cloud computing technology, asserting the support of the local electronics industry throughout exploiting global networks within submarine, satellites and fiber-optic cables.
Moreover, Helmy has called the participants of the conference to develop the strategic vision of cloud computing future in Egypt, as it is one of the most important elements so as to achieve significant transition towards the digital society and achieve economic development in Egypt.
Helmy further has noted that the technological infrastructure represented in the number of mobile phone users which up to more than 96 million subscribers as well as high speed internet subscribers that reached nearly 2.5 million subscribers and 11 million internet users via mobile phone.
Helmy said we should estimate the important of ICT for the Egyptian society and the citizen’s willingness to adopt the technology in daily life.
