Al Akhbar, P.24 (10-1-2007)

The development of technological cooperation between Egypt and India

By: Galal Doweidar

I had a telephone conversation with the Egyptian Minister of Telecommunication and Information Dr. Tarek Kamel after his return from an Asian tour, during which he visited India. In fact, I am very impressed and enthrall by the massive progress achieved by India in the field of software industry. Dr. Tarek Kamel told me that India's achievement in this field encourages us to follow suit and double Egypt's software revenues, which have already crossed the mark of US$ 1 billion. The Minister added that the revenues of India's software industry reached US$ 23.5 billion and it is expected to touch US$ 40 billion within the coming few years.

Dr. Tarek Kamel contacted me after the article I have previously written under the title "Egyptian-Indian cooperation in software industry", in which I hailed Dr. Kamel's response to the invitation of the Indian Minister of Telecommunication to discuss aspects of cooperation between the two countries in the field of IT. I said that the visit would play a role in breaking the ice in bilateral relations between the two countries, which used to have close historical friendship, further strengthened after the establishment of the None-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Undoubtedly, the visit paid by Minister Dr. Tarek Kamel to India has greatly contributed to the efforts exerted to revive old glorious relations between Egypt and India. One of the outcomes of the talks the Egyptian Minister held with Indian officials at different levels is that India Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) Executive Director Mr. D K Sareen and Satyam Computer Services Limited Chairman Mr.  Ramalinga Raju visited Egypt in order to push forward aspects of cooperation between the two countries in this domain.

After the two officials had met the Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazief, they signed an MoU with Dr. Tarek Kamel on the establishment of IT Centre in Cairo by the Indian company.

In view of these developments, the Egyptian Ministry of Telecommunication extended the invitation to the members of Satyam Board of Directors to visit Egypt to hold their annual meeting in Cairo during the period December 8-10, 2006. Minister Dr. Kamel said that one of the results of the agreements signed with the Indian companies is the establishment of a number of joint ventures in Egypt for exporting IT-related services to neighbouring countries, thus generating 2000 job opportunities during the years 2007 and 2008. By the year 2010, these job opportunities are expected to increase to 10,000.

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