Flair Magazine Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, took part in season two of Narrative Summit’s series of digital talks ‘Reshaping Norms’ in a session that explored the ministry’s projects aimed at raising the efficiency of its telecom networks and technological infrastructure and building ‘Digital Egypt’. The series, broadcast across Narrative Summit’s social media platforms, brings together experts and industry leaders to tackle the global and local effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has paved the path to a new reality across different sectors.
During his session, Dr. Talaat indicated that had it not been for the efforts made to raise the efficiency of its telecom networks and technological infrastructure, thus boosting the average speed of the fixed Internet in January 2020 to 30.3 Mbps – more than six times the average speed in late 2018 – networks would not have been capable of withstanding the loads that resulted from the growing patterns of citizens’ usage of telecommunications services during the pandemic. He added that the number of peak hours rose to 15 from 7 per day, while loads increased by 99%.
He emphasized that digital transformation has become essential now more than ever and that all the players in Egypt’s digital system are working hard to achieve it. Efforts have been made within the digital community, which includes the government, the private sector, the civil society institutions, training and technical education centers, independent professionals, and startups to build ‘Digital Egypt’. The Minister also said that, one of the key elements of the strategy of ‘Digital Egypt’ is the provision of digitized government services, as citizens are increasingly using these services, without needing to take the trouble of going to the government premises to obtain different documents, particularly during the pandemic.
“Digital Egypt is a quantum leap in the services provided by the state to the citizens,” said Dr. Talaat, noting that this project would be completed within two years at a cost of more than EGP 7 billion, including the equipment required for connecting more than 33,000 government buildings to an optical fiber network.
Speaking about the Ministry’s efforts in addressing the coronavirus crisis, Dr. Talaat highlighted a number of initiatives that have been launched to encourage citizens to stay at home for the longest possible period; they include an initiative to provide 20% free-of-charge extra downloading capacity for all landline Internet subscribers in Egypt, at a cost of EGP 200 million that was fully borne by the government. The Minister also highlighted the initiative of providing free-of-charge access to all educational websites designated by the Ministries of Education and Higher Education for students to complete their studies.
Moreover, he discussed the ways of empowering the youth under the current conditions, referring to the “Work from Home” initiative to train youths on self-employment techniques and how to communicate with customers around the world via digital platforms for independent professionals or freelancers to find job opportunities in the field of digital technology. This is in addition to an initiative that was launched in cooperation with Nasser Social Bank to extend loans to the youths for the purchase of their personal computers at low interest rates.
Addressing his vision for the new reality imposed by COVID-19, the Minister said that the current crisis prompted the Ministry to exert more efforts to expand the provision of digital learning and training opportunities. He also shed light on the “Our Future is Digital’ initiative, under which 100,000 youths will receive training on the specializations required by the local and global job markets in the field of communications and information technology. He added that these specialized training tracks focus on designing and building websites, data science and analysis, as well as digital marketing. He also stated that, within one week of the initiative’s launch, a total of 30,000 youths had already registered and started their training, in cooperation with Udacity, an international company specializing in developing technical skills via their digital platform.
He also stressed that working, training, and raising efficiency in the period of our coexistence with the pandemic and its aftermath will not be bound by geographical limitations, but will rely mainly on maximizing benefits from digital technologies.
