The digital revolution offers great opportunities for Africa. However, to capitalize on those opportunities for socioeconomic progress, the continent needs to develop its digital ecosystem. 

Egypt and Germany plan to enhance their digital cooperation. The issue was discussed by the Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Amr Talaat, and the German Ambassador in Cairo, Frank Hartmann, during a meeting between the two parties in Cairo last Tuesday.  

According to a release from the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), the two parties discussed current and future ICT cooperation projects, including the "Supporting e-Government and Innovation in the Public Administration (InnoPA)" project, being implemented in partnership with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

“During the meeting, the ICT Minister highlighted MCIT's keenness to leverage the distinguished expertise of the German side in IT and research and development (R&D) based on modern technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital transformation,”  the release informs. 

Indeed, for some years now, Germany has been one of the most technologically advanced countries. According to the Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL Index), the global ranking of countries according to digital quality of life published in October 2022, Germany was the 3rd just behind Israel, and Denmark. The DQL index took into account 5 criteria, namely the quality of the Internet connection, e-government, cyberinfrastructure, Internet accessibility, and cybersecurity capabilities.

By strengthening its digital cooperation with such a country,  Egypt wants to capitalize on Germany’s experience to successfully implement the projects planned in its 2022-2026 Country Strategy Paper while selling its outsourcing services and building a “talent pool capable of exporting ICT services.”

Meanwhile, the German ambassador to Egypt, Frank Hartmann said that his country wants to open its market to benefit from the pool of Egyptian freelancing talent working in the IT sector.

Samira Njoya