Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) has launched a new Digital Egypt Strategy for Offshoring (2022-2026) with the aim of unlocking growth potentials in this industry and tripling the export revenue from digitally-enabled offshoring services.
The strategy also targets creating over 215, 000 jobs and increasing Egypt’s competitiveness in areas of readership and development (R&D) and high-value services, according to ITIDA.
Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) Amr Talaat witnessed, via videoconference, the launch of Digital Egypt Strategy. The launch event was attended by more than 120 multinational and local companies, CEOs and senior executives of offshoring service providers.
During the event, Talaat said that Egypt has many competitive advantages that raise its likelihood of becoming a global offshoring leader, given the country’s unique location and skillful young population.
He added that MCIT worked hand in hand with experts over the past few months to study Egypt's opportunities in the global offshoring market.
“As a result, the strategy was developed. I look forward to cooperating with local and international companies to further grow the local offshoring industry”, Talaat explained.
Talaat also noted that MCIT invests in people through a broad range of training programs that meet market needs.
“The ministry has multiplied its training budget 22 times, helping achieve a 50-fold increase in the number of trainees. It also targets training 200,000 people in 2022, at an EGP 1.1 billion cost,” the minister stated.
He also noted that MCIT coordinates with private companies and prestigious academic institutions to provide young people with technical training opportunities in order to help them gain hands-on experience and create a talent pool capable of building the knowledge economy.
ICT is the highest-growing state sector, growing by 16 percent rate and contributing to the GDP by 5 percent with a target of reaching 8 percent within three years, according to Talaat.
The new strategy is developed by ITIDA, in collaboration with the global consulting firm "Ernst & Young".
It is based on a thorough and objective study of the Egyptian market, while simultaneously measuring and monitoring the growing demand in the global market for offshoring services, which is expected to amount to $540 billion in value, with an annual growth rate ranging between 8 percent and 9 percent through 2026, according to ITIDA.
The Digital Egypt strategy for the offshoring industry involves three main pillars; including the development of talent capabilities; the development of the industry ecosystem; and international marketing and promotion for Egypt.
These pillars include nine key initiatives aims to achieve the desired goals, the most important of which is to achieve a boom in Egyptian exports of offshoring services by 19 percent per annum.
“We are committed to developing a strong, collaborative business environment to drive the next phase of growth in Egypt’s offshoring Sector,” said Amr Mahfouz, CEO of ITIDA.
Mahfouz noted that to achieve the strategy’s objectives ITIDA offers incentives and assistance designed carefully from an investor's perspective and provided during the entire business lifecycle.
“We primarily target to improve the overall cost competitiveness of Egypt's offshoring industry, and to attract more foreign direct investment and encourage the expansion of existing industry players and investors,” Mahfouz illustrated.
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