By Mohamed Alaa El-Din
The Ministry of Communication took steps to launch major projects in partnership with the private sector via the PPP system, in accordance with law 67 of 2010.
The ministry has already launched two projects at an estimated cost of EGP 2bn, and is planning to launch a pilot phase for a smart electricity metres project at an estimated cost of EGP 3bn.
This comes after a three-year period of inactivity from the ministry, in which no projects were launched. This negatively impacted companies operating in the market due to lack of demand, which caused inertia in the commercial traffic of the telecommunications and information technology sector.
The Ministry of Communications has launched two qualifying tenders for the design and operation of commercial registration offices at a cost of EGP 700m. The first will select the qualified companies, while the second is to choose the winning company or alliance in December.
This project aims to automate commercial registration offices to build an integrated information system in 89 offices and raise the efficiency of government services to the public, as well as archive all their data. The project will be implemented within two years. The ministry is now studying four proposals from alliances of Egyptian, Saudi Arabian, UAE, and European companies.
The second project to be put forward by the Ministry of Communications is for the automation, operation, and maintenance of notary offices in all governorates at an estimated cost of EGP 1.2bn. The ministry set the deadline for 15 December to receive applications for the tender, following which another one will be launched to make a final decision.
The project aims to develop the working environment in the registry offices, develop the workers’ skills, and increase the number of offices affiliated to the civil registry authority. It also to develop the application programmes used in offices and increase the major absorptive capacity of the information centre of the civil registry authority.
The ministry’s third project is to prepare to launch and supply smart electricity metres. This project is expected to be the largest in their recent phase, with an estimated cost at EGP 10bn for 40m meters. The ministry will launch a pilot phase with a limited number of smart electricity metres by November at an estimated cost of EGP 3bn.
