The participants in the first conference of Al-Shorouknewspaper confirmed that digital transformation is no longer an option during the current period, but rather a necessity to achieve development.
Al-Shorouk held its first conference under the title “Digital transformation between government achievements and citizen’s requirements”.
Khaled Al-Attar, Deputy Minister of Communications for Digital Transformation and Mechanization, said that digital transformation has become one of the necessities of life in all countries of the world to reach knowledgeable societies that depend on the use of data to correct the path, raise the competitive capabilities of countries and achieve the well-being of citizens.
Al-Attar stressed that the biggest problem facing digital transformation in general is the brain drain, explaining that Egypt has been in the digital transformation phase since May 2015 when compiling government agencies’ databases and studying the implementation of giant government projects such as comprehensive health insurance.
Al-Attar said that the ministry seeks to transform Egypt into a knowledge society that depends on the use of data in managing policies, but there are a set of challenges, including the need for more disciplined government databases in order to eliminate corruption in addition to the nature of culture and heritage of the government employee, who still believes in the importance of having an official document with a stamp on it.
Al-Attar stressed the need to restructure the system of services provided by government agencies to accommodate new smart applications and provide services through more than one outlet for citizens.
For his part, Ahmed Makki, Chairperson of Benya Capital, said that companies, in cooperation with the government, are currently answering the question of how digital transformation will be implemented, stressing that the digital transformation strategy gives an opportunity for companies to develop infrastructure, which is the most important axes for implementing digital transformation.
He added that Benya has participated during the past four years in implementing influential projects at the national level, which did not exist with this strength and momentum before to prove that Egypt is capable of digital transformation.
He pointed out that the world looks at Africa as a continent of opportunities, and based on this, we must play our role in supporting African markets, noting that his company started this in cooperation with Congo to extend the infrastructure of fibre cables in cooperation with the Congolese Telecom Company, with investments of about $500.
He noted that the fibre optics industry must be localized in Egypt to promote infrastructure development – something that Benya did through the establishment of a joint company between Benya and the Arab Organization for Industrialization, explaining that the factory received requests covering 60% of the expected production volume of the plant.
Ahmed Mansour, Secretary-General of Egypt Post, said that the Egyptian Post is currently working on implementing the strategy of digital transformation and financial inclusion through the authority’s 4,200 branches nationwide, indicating that the authority seeks to change the way the service is provided to citizens using modern technological means.
Mansour explained that Egypt Post provides more than 150 postal, governmental, and financial services but the biggest challenge is how to educate citizens to provide the service through alternative channels.
He added that the National Post Authority has begun working on developing logistic centers, mobile cars, and ATMs with a number of 1,750 machines, and plans to add from 2,000 to 3,000 new machines during the next year.
