- A buoyant start to the year for Egypt's information and communications technology is fuelling economic growth in the country at large, according to the Cairo government.
Egypt's economy grew by 5.8 percent in the first quarter of 2010. This, according to government, had been accelerated by the 11.3 percent growth of Egypt's information and communication technology (ICT) industry.
Reports by the Cairo Economic Development Ministry revealed the national economic growth was at its fastest pace in almost two years and is expected to hit as high as 5.3 percent in the fiscal year ending June, up from 4.7 percent in the previous year.
Egypt remains one of the world's fastest growing outsourcing destinations and has seen huge investments in the last year with companies including Sykes Enterprise and Stream Global Services. ITIDA has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Intel Corp to further boost the potential of Egyptian ICT companies by using Intel's technical expertise to improve their potential and develop products and technical solutions.
Commenting on the growth of the sector, Dr Hazem Abdelazim, CEO of the Egypt's Information Technology Industry Development Agency said: "We have had a positive start to the year with new companies investing and local companies developing and expanding their capabilities and services. The sector is going from strength to strength and is evidently having a huge impact on the overall growth of our country."
"We are confident that the sector will continue to grow during the remainder of 2010 and that we will see more multinational companies expanding and outsourcing their business to Egypt," adds Dr Abdelazim.
Egypt continues to invest in its infrastructure, and intellectual property and piracy are two areas that it is aggressively tackling, according to the government agency.
The agency in particular is emphasising government's fighting of piracy. In the 2009 Business Software Alliance and IDC Global PC Software Piracy Study published this week, Egypt's piracy rating remained at 59 percent for the second year, despite overall global levels rising in 2009.
Egypt's rating had however dropped by 5 percent since 2005 and, at 59 percent, "its ratings are lower than other leading outsourcing destinations such as Morocco (66%), China (79%) and the Philippines (69%)," the government agency emphasised.
Dr Abdelazim adds that "reducing piracy continues to be a challenge for the sector globally. In Egypt, we are continuing to make this a priority and are making good progress. Our rate remains lower than some other destinations around the world, and shows why Egypt has become a leading destination for global outsourcing."
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