Government partnering with the private sector has proven to be a successful formula for the implementation of CIT projects.
Since its inception in 1999, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has recognized the key to success. Ministry officials, led by the minister of MCIT, realised that to grow the CIT sector in Egypt the ministry can not bring to life Egypt’s Information Society initiative alone. The initiative has two strategic objectives namely to spread ICT tools nationwide and to set the foundation of an export ICT-oriented community.
Acting like a true player in the global economy, MCIT has chosen to partner with the private sector to bring to life many of the projects that have now become part of our daily life. " All MCIT initiatives are implemented through the public-private partnerships," said Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology.
Ambitious projects like the PC for every home and the Free Internet are living examples of public private partnerships. In both the ministry has not just launched an initiative, but actually formulated strategies, determined policies, stipulated regulations and got stakeholders together then supported the whole initiative.
"We are always concerned to strengthen our relations with the business community and the civil society and we will continue with the current policy of partnering with the private sector to empower the national ICT industry," said Kamel.
This scheme not only enables the government to carry out projects that it could not afford to carry on its own, but allows it to expand the role of the private sector, which is ultimately the engine for growth. By promoting private sector involvement in an increasing number of new fields, the government hopes to provide job opportunities, and it hopes to make available to the public a wide spectrum of services at even cheaper prices.
For example, about 120,000 today own PCs thanks to the PC for Every Home initiative. This has enabled individuals to obtain affordable, Internet-enabled family computers payable through instalments, with no collateral and no deposit required, and the only guarantee needed is a fixed telephone line. This is an effort that has been made possible through MCIT cooperation with banks, financing agencies, private PC assembling companies and NGOs in addition to Telecom Egypt.
Two other initiatives have boosted the number of Internet users, namely the Free Internet initiative and the Broadband initiative. Both have made available to the public a service that was otherwise accessible by only an exclusive few. This has boosted the number of Internet users in Egypt to about 5 million. The Subscription-Free Internet model is uniquely Egyptian, based on a revenue sharing scheme between Egypt’s national operator, leading local ISPs and traditional content providers.
Meanwhile, the Broadband initiative offers affordable high-speed connection to the Internet. Through collaborative efforts, MCIT and the private sector are playing an important role in increasing the penetration of ADSL. These initiatives are aimed at creating a broad base of a computer literate generation.
Part of MCIT’s role in encouraging the private sector’s participation in the CIT sector has been the legislations it has pushed forward during the past years. These include the Intellectual Property law 82 of 2002 and the Electronic Signature Law 15 of 2004. Moreover, the ministry is helping create a broader base of well trained professional calibre in the field through the various training programs it carries out in cooperation with international companies and NGOs.
Egypt has paid extra attention to the human element and thus MCIT has invested in training and recruiting young calibres in the field of CIT by means of establishing IT training programs that offer a wide array of training schemes that fulfil different desires and provide job opportunities for young university graduates.
" MCIT helps creating super young ambassadors with professional training programs on the latest technologies in collaboration with multinational companies," Kamel said continuing "Egyptian engineers and technicians are the ones developing the infrastructure of neighbouring countries and they are known for their competence."
The ministry provides a wide array of training programs starting from the Basic Skills Training Program that offers introductory courses to the more elaborate Specialized Training Program, which includes both an application oriented and a programming oriented program. In both, the ministry has partnered with private companies that offer practical training to trainees. Among the prominent companies that take part in the Specialized Training Program are IBM, Orascom and Fujitsu.
Over the past few years, many public private partnerships have been implemented, particularly those related to licensing operators to build, own and operate infrastructure for provision of telecommunications services. Other successes include mobile telephone operators, who over the last four years have increased the number of mobile subscribers to over 10 million, and public payphone companies that have installed almost fifty five thousand phone cabins nationwide.
The National Post Organisation, one of the main elements in the government’s information infrastructure, has also concluded many public private partnerships to utilise scarce resources and expertise. For example, it signed an agreement with Vodafone to sell mobile phone recharge cards through the post offices. It also agreed with Federal Express to provide a new shipping service called Net Courier for overseas shipments. This service allows Egypt Post to deliver courier services with the same standard of speed, accuracy, tracing of items and customer service at an economic rate. It offers, in cooperation with Banque Misr, interest bearing savings accounts.
MCIT has also taken public private partnerships a step further and expanded the idea to what it calls multi stakeholder partnerships (MSPs), which aim at promoting, facilitating and stimulating the creation of innovative enterprises capable of taking full advantage of ICT. In these endeavours, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are seen as major stakeholders.
Typical NGO involvement in MSPs may include identifying local opportunities for creation or expansion of markets, encouraging entrepreneurship and networking among entrepreneurs. NGOs may also become involved in supporting small and medium enterprises in restructuring their business and processing via ICT and the Internet, and they may facilitate new mechanisms for funding through links with financial institutions. Some of the projects which fall within the framework of the MSPs are those carried out by the ICT Trust Fund. Among those is introducing ICT in preparatory schools through the Smart Schools Network initiative. This aims at improving teaching and educational methods by transforming the school into a productive unit. The initiative also hopes to ensure that that all Egyptian students are computer literate after preparatory school in preparation for the modern workplace. It also provides a level of exposure to ICT that will help identify from an early stage those students with special talent for further training. Member schools involved in this project will provide a model for introducing basic computer literacy to preparatory schools.
Other projects within the framework of the ICT Trust Fund include the Community Knowledge Generation E-Library project and the Mobile Information Technology Club, a UNDP backed project involving the use of buses and caravans specially equipped with fully functional media labs to provide service to a set of geographical areas, stopping at schools and communities for periods of up to two weeks.
MCIT continues the road to success by calling on more private companies and NGOs to join efforts to implement its projects. The aim after all is to provide the best quality of services to the Egyptian society in order to establish a solid base for the younger generations to come.
