Engineer Amr Mahfouz, CEO of Egypt's Information Technology Industry Development Agency,
(ITIDA) has paid a visit to Menofia University and to the Digital Egypt Innovation Hub (Creativa) (Creativa) at the
University campus.
During the visit, Mahfouz met Dr. Adel Mubarak, the Menofia University President, along with several Deans and
Undersecretaries of different Faculties.
The meeting discussed the strategy of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) in Egypt; the
state's digital transformation efforts to achieve digital transformation. Additionally, the meeting discussed the
Ministry’s focus on vastly promoting Egypt as a central hub in the IT industry in the global markets, and its
keenness on attracting more foreign investments, while exploring the mechanisms applied by the state to increase
Egypt's digital exports.
ITIDA CEO said that the visit comes out of ITIDA’s keenness to benefit Egyptian youth in various universities from
the initiatives carried out by MCIT and ITIDA. He affirmed the need for each governorate to have a share of training
programs, and the importance of introducing students to these programs and initiatives offered by ITIDA, aiming to
spread the culture of entrepreneurship and innovation, and to also equip students with the skills of freelance
employment based on technology.
Mahfouz pointed out that ITIDA has held numerous partnerships with international universities and institutions, such
as MIT, to promote the growth of the technology startup sector and support creativity-based
entrepreneurship.
Mahfouz also discussed means to overcome the challenges facing students in their entrepreneurial projects in the
fields of Electronics and Internet of things (IoT), where he explained that ITIDA is working on a white list of the
most used devices in these fields in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, Egyptian Customs Authority and the
National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) in order to stimulate and accelerate entrepreneurial
projects and establishing startups.
For his part, Dr. Adel Mubarak, president of Menofia University, stressed that Egypt is witnessing a major
breakthrough in the field of digital transformation, praising the initiatives launched by President Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi, to encourage and promote creativity among students and graduates, while building a supportive innovation
ecosystem in which they are able to develop their skills to meet local and global market needs. Mubarak stated the
importance of encouraging university students to participate in these important initiatives, which introduces them
to the role of innovation centers and the potential opportunities it creates.
The meeting also discussed the challenges introduced by COVID-19, and applauded the performance of the ICT sector
and readiness of the Information Technology Services. During the meeting they have also mentioned the ongoing
development to adopt technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. ITIDA also affirmed its support of Applied
Research and Innovation in advanced technologies.
Engineer Mahfouz, accompanied by Dr. Osama Abdul Raouf, Undersecretary of the Faculty of Computers and Information,
along with the delegation, visited the innovation center at the University to inspect its work. Mahfouz met with a
number of students and graduates benefiting from the ITIDA’s programs, where he listened to the problems facing them
and their ideas for development, as well as listened to a number of success stories of some youth, and their ability
to implement projects from foreign countries, such as Canada, in the field of Data Analysis, through self-employment
platforms as a result of their acquired professional skills through programs like Egypt FWD and Next Technology
Leaders (NTL).
