By: Nahla Muqalad
Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, met with Eng. Abdullah bin Amer Al-Sawah, Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the presence of Ambassador Ahmed Farouk, Egyptian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The meeting discussed cooperation between the two countries in a number of areas related to communications and information technology, most notably capacity building, Digital economy, electronic payments.
This came on the sidelines of Dr. Amr Talaat’s visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to chair the 46th ordinary session meeting of the Executive Office of the Arab Council of Ministers for Communications and Information, and to participate in the work of the 23rd session of the Arab Council of Ministers for Communications and Information, whose activities will take place on December 17 and 18.
During the meeting, Dr. Amr Talaat and Engineer Abdullah bin Amer Al-Sawahah signed a memorandum of understanding on enhancing cooperation between Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the field of communications and information technology and benefiting from it in achieving the sustainable development goals that benefit the citizens of both countries.
The scope of cooperation between the two countries in accordance with the terms of the memorandum of understanding, which extends for 3 years, includes a number of fields: human capacity building, support for innovation and entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, and cooperation in the field of digital awareness and digital transformation.
Where the two countries agreed to build digital capabilities for young people through cooperation between the Saudi Digital Academy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Information Technology Institute in the Arab Republic of Egypt to develop training curricula in specific paths related to modern technologies that accompany the fourth industrial revolution such as smart device applications, the development of electronic games, and the development of User interfaces, machine language, open source software development, data science and analysis, cloud computing, web and multimedia development.
The areas of cooperation in this axis also include the exchange of training cadres to implement joint training programs and training of trainers, and to provide an opportunity for academic and institute students to present joint application projects in the fields and tracks of programs, as well as cooperation in transferring business models and industrial and technical partnerships between the academy and the institute.
The agreement also provides for cooperation between the Agency for Technology Development and Digital Capacity of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Center for Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Information Technology Industry Development Authority of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the Arab Republic of Egypt in the areas of: Empowering entrepreneurs in the field of emerging digital technologies and providing Support to maximize economic benefits, activate the role of accelerators and business incubators and investors in the field of digital technologies for investment in technical facilities, and organize a Saudi-Egyptian initiative for technical innovation and leadership Business to form joint teams from both sides working to develop solutions and products that serve large technical projects in the two countries, and to organize joint conferences and competitions in the field of technical innovation and entrepreneurship focusing on the most important techniques applied globally.
The areas of cooperation include the exchange of experiences and best practices in the two countries in the field of applications of artificial intelligence, as well as digital awareness and digital transformation to build a digital society and digital government based on innovation and effective digital capabilities.
