The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development held a mini-ceremony to honour the winners of the Egypt Award for Government Services Applications, with Minister Hala El-Said handing over the prizes.
El-Said said that the winning teams are honourable examples of Egypt’s youth who have reached a great achievement in excellence, creativity, and innovation. She added that the awards confirm Egypt’s interest in creativity, innovation, and government applications, whose importance has increased in light of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.
The first prize winning project, Tazkartak (“Your Ticket”), was created by a team from Ain Shams University. It provides smart and fast solutions for booking train, metro, and public transport trips, providing a time and effort saving service for citizens.
Fellow winner was An Accident, which is connected with the National Egyptian E-Learning University. The app is centred on providing an integrated smart application to report road accidents, and working to facilitate access to the citizen at the accident site, rescue the injured, and take the necessary measures.
The “Discover Egypt” application, created by a team from Helwan University, displays the most important tourist attractions in Egypt, and helps visitors from their arrival in the country at their tourist destination until their departure.
Each winning team received a prize and is being supported to achieve, incubate, implement, and help set up their own company.
El-Said explained that a large number of state institutions are currently operating virtually, which emphasises the idea of creativity and innovation in technology.
She pointed out that her ministry launched the Egypt Award for Government Services Applications, believing in the importance of creativity and innovation on one side, and the role of youth in developing everything related to the government system on the other hand.
The minister stressed the importance of government applications that contribute to innovatively and distinctly accelerating the state’s performance.
El-Said added that when launching the award at Egyptian universities, a group of ten main sectors was targeted, due to the importance of the digital transformation process in these sectors.
These sectors are notably tourism, transport and communications, health, and education, among other sectors. It also targeted the ministerial level, focusing on the Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs, as well as Justice.
El-Said added that the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development has set conditions on the applications for the award, the most important of which is working as part of a team.
Other conditions also included providing a smart mechanism for an application that facilitates government services.
El-Said explained that a group of experts was brought in to receive ideas, in addition to the training provided by the Ministry’s Rowad 2030 project for advanced teams.
The minister stressed the importance of looking at other ideas that did not win the award and helping their owners in developing their ideas even if they are not directly applicable. She added that there is nothing more important than having ideas that turn into projects that help and serve the process of implementing services to citizens.
