Get Ready for the Future

Cairo ICT ‘09 opens with elegant booths and networking opportunities, and once the opening ceremony simmered down, attention was moved to the future, or Future Living.

Each year Cairo ICT begins with a formal ceremony, followed by a tour of the facilities by H.E. Dr. Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology. This year was no exception, and once the minister finished his tour, he addressed a VIP crowd in the Nefertiti Hall for the opening session.

 

Dr. Kamel spoke about the many accomplishments of technology in Egypt, noting that the ministry had increased the types of projects it is developing, as well as training people that were previously not reached by the MCIT.
“Now for the first time the ministry is approaching 10,000 young people while they are still at the university and not after they graduate,” he said.
            “The most important thing is to upgrade the skills and so when I tour universities I ask the young people what technology they are using.” (read more)

3M: 3M will soon release the Micro Professional Projector MPro110, a breakthrough in mobile technology. This portable device can project any file from handheld media players, mobile PCs or laptops. The 3M MPro110 can expand stored images to a 50x50 inch picture or larger while maintaining the quality of the image.

Aastra: Aastra has acquired Ericsson’s enterprise division, a leading European business communication company. We are now expanding in the Middle East and North Africa for enterprise telephony and video conferencing with a special emphasis on call and contact centers.

 

Al Babtain LeBlanc: Al Babtain LeBlanc is currently overseeing the design, manufacture and shipping of our new radio towers and supports from our worldwide facilities in Canada, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Australia and Asia. These new towers will ensure that we can bring the world market the best telephone services.

Apple Pie: Apple Pie Trade will display the new Apple LED Cinema Display (24" flat panel) at the Pie Technology stand in Cairo ICT. This is your place to experience technology ranging from the most advanced video and publishing solutions to the most fashionable iPods. We also add established Arabic support to Apple products.

C&CC: C&CC is a networking services integrator specialized in providing innovative solutions to save money, time and effort. To maximize the value of our Internet video networks, we are also implementing IP surveillance solutions launching CCTV products into IP platforms that allows decision makers and business owners to reach further than ever and steer themselves towards a more productive and functional environment.

C.S.C: C.S.C is an advertising agency using new technology to enable you to send free advertisements in multiple formats like text and jpegs to customers’ Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. It's a new way of advertising that creates an interactive communication channels between brands and consumers.

Delta Software: Delta Software will launch Delta Financials Version 9, a web-enabled application that implements a new vision for financial management. The Delta Financials series allows companies to significantly improve productivity by leveraging the global networking capabilities of the Internet for organization.

EMAK: EMAK is currently collaborating with NU luxury and lifestyle products to bring to Egypt wireless television, LCD screens and waterproof MP3 players. EMAK is a partner or a sole distributor of many brands and IT products including: Aopen's Mini PCs, Apacer brand's flash memory drives and various MP3 players.

eSmartsoft: The Smart Reports tool is the first and only fully Arabic end-user reporting and DSS tool. eSmartsoft complemented Smart Reports with SmartETL to build data warehouses and SmartAnalyzer for data quality assessment. eSmartsoft is also the Informix technical arm of IBM in Egypt and the region.

FekraSoft: FekraSoft® is a software solutions provider, depending on technical development orientation. We try to meet customers’ needs through a precise study and analysis of customers’ business requirements and by offering a wide range of services including: web application development, desktop and client server applications, graphic design and HTML implementations and e-commerce solutions.

Gadtech: Gadtech Egypt was set up in the early 1990s to meet the growing needs in the local and regional market for integral business and management solutions. Active Student, a unique and comprehensive educational program, will be our star product at Cairo ICT 2009. We transfer educational textbooks to electronic books on CDs and also have bilingual solution programs designed to suit a wide range of businesses.

HitekNOFAL: We are launching a unified communications (UC) bundles to help small medium enterprises streamline information delivery, eliminate human delays, ensure flawless and direct collaboration among employees, suppliers and customers and reduce expenses. The unification of all communication devices inside a single platform provides the mobility, presence and contact capabilities that extend beyond the phone to all devices employees may use or have at their disposal.

Internile: We offer a whole range of digital marketing and media solutions, complete with online strategy, campaign and tactical micro-sites, media planning and campaign delivery. Helping build your brand or evolve its digital platform is exactly the kind of challenge that Internile has successfully provided for our clients. Conceptual thinking, integrated planning, execution, measurement and optimization are all key elements we deliver to make digital work for your brand.

Iris:
IRIS has over 10 years of practical experience in the field of electronic security documents since it pioneered the world’s first e-passport and the largest national e-ID solutions, including our home country of Malaysia, as well as in Senegal and Bahrain. More importantly, we have end-to-end electronic security solutions that markedly differentiate us from our competitors.

IT Synergy: IT Synergy will unveil a new VoIP solution tailored for medium and large enterprises: a system which integrates instant messaging, voice and video. Using interoperable protocols, it assures open communications and the ability to connect with different systems and devices, providing the best solution possible.

ITIDA: Under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) will participate in Cairo ICT for the third time this year. ITIDA is dedicated to promoting and developing Egypt’s ICT industry with a particular focus on business outsourcing.

Main Telecom: Main Telecom just gained a research partnership with a major Saudi firm. Our target is to improve telecommunication standards and systems for managing customer relations. We also signed mega projects in Saudi Arabia to interconnect 85 hotels and resorts and a project with the Dammam Governorate for call center activities.

MATRADE: Four Malaysian companies will participate in this year’s Cairo ICT, because of the work of the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE). MATRADE just oversaw the development of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and hosted many international companies for outsourcing services in Cyberjaya, a township within MSC.

Matrix: Matrix has developed a leading standard software system called Axiom-System. Axiom-System is a totally integrated business management system for all companies and is one of the most advanced business management applications on the market.

NAT: NAT will display the website 2FindMe.com at Cairo ICT. 2FindMe offers news and advertising services via SMS messages sent free of charge to your mobile phone. Users will be able to receive news of interest to their business or life and will have multiple channels to subscribe. For example, if you subscribe to our tourism channel, we will provide you with discounts on trips. Sign up at www.2findMe.com and win free SMS credit.

Networks vision: over 600 words

Nokia: At this year's Cairo ICT, we will host Forum Nokia to reach out to the local mobile application developer community in the region. This will be a unique opportunity for the local developers to learn more about the best technology and business platforms that Nokia provides.

Oracle Europe: Leading wastewater management company Moalajah implemented Oracle® Utilities Customer Care and Billing to help meet customer needs in the rapidly-expanding market of Ajman, United Arab Emirates. Throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa, organizations continue to adopt and expand the Oracle Database.

QuadraTech: QuadraTech brought technologies to our clients to increase their productivity by partnering with the world's most powerful vendors. QuadraTech is proud to celebrate out ten-year anniversary. Milestones along QuadraTech’s successful growth path include achieving Cisco Systems certifications, Microsoft Gold Certified, Commscope Business Partner, Symantec Silver Partner, OpenText Partner and RSA Access Partner.  

Quality Horizons: Quality Horizons just developed Quality Advanced Solution for Integrated Business (QASIB), an all-inclusive enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. QASIB is capable of serving a wide diversity of business needs, developing new ways of delivering services and harmonizing organizational units.

Quicktel: Come and visit us at ICT booth number 31 and you will realize that QuickTel is a really one-stop shop. We are strongly committed to offering the highest quality, most innovative and cost-effective solutions and services to telecommunications operators, service providers, businesses and residential users.

El Sewedy: El Sewedy Cables is making strides to increase energy efficiency. First, we will build advanced manufacturing facilities under the name of El Sewedy for Wind Energy Generation. We also plan to collaborate with Iskraemeco, an energy measurement and management company in Slovenia, to bring flexible metering and billing solutions for tracking energy usage.

Smart Technologies: SMART Technologies announces the third generation SMART
Board™ 600i interactive whiteboard system. Each model in the improved 600i line combines an award-winning SMART Board 600 series interactive whiteboard and one of two new boom-mounted, short-throw projectors, both of which offer longer bulb life and better image quality than previous generations.

Soflock: Softlock already dominates 90% of the copy protection market in Egypt and controls about 15% in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The company’s vision is to be the market leader in the MENA region in copyright protection and digital signatures.

SpeechWorkers: SpeechWorkers just released its’ Voice Mobile Translator (V-Translator), a powerful integrated mobile phone application which breaks the language barrier anytime, anywhere. It lets the user talk back for an instant translation in either text or voice—from any language, into any language. 

Telecom Egypt: Telecom Egypt, the incumbent telecommunications provider in Egypt, is also the largest provider of fixed-line services in the Middle East with more than 11.3 million customers as at the end of June 2008, with switching capacity of 11.9 million. What's more, the combined length of our fiber optic cables is now 25,000 km. Telecom Egypt North connects nearly two billion people in Asia to the Western Hemisphere through our submarine cable systems.

TeleTech: TeleTech implemented the first commercial WiMAX network in Egypt, which is to be operated by TE Data in Luxor. We also established a subsidiary specialized in software development for telecommunications products: TeleTech Soft. TeleTech is operational in Egypt, Algeria, Syria and Iraq.

Toshiba: The new wave of stylish Toshiba Satellite Laptops lets consumers put their Toshiba at the heart of their digital homes. They provide the latest audio-visual entertainment, Windows log-on, a web camera using face recognition and hassle-free, location-based connectivity for both wired and wireless networks.

Trinity: Trinity is an authorized distributor and partner of a number of leading vendors, such as NEC, Pioneer, Toshiba, Liteon, ASRok, Asus, BenQ, Seagate and WD. Additionally, our aim in Cairo ICT 2009 is to focus our presence in Egypt through a local office that we established recently in Cairo and to build strong channel relationships with the major players in Egypt.

Tristar: Arabian American for Systems Development (TRISTAR) started in computers and IT solutions and then began to provide professional audio, visual and automation solutions. We are helping resellers, retailers and businesses lower the supply chain costs of their operations.

UK Trade and Investment: UK Trade and Investment identified the ICT sector as one of five priorities for action in UKTI's strategy "Prosperity in a Changing World" launched in July 2006. We believe the effective uptake of ICT is vital for every sector within the UK. The sub sector priorities as identified in the UK ICT strategy are: communications, electronics; electronic consumer products; enterprise systems; retail and logistics; healthcare; e-government and e-finance.

Union Trade: Union Trade operates in the field of queue management systems, currency counters, detectors, event boards and parking systems. We plan to accelerate our growth as we strive towards excellence across Egypt. In addition, our highly qualified technicians and sales team is supported by General Micro Systems, a worldwide recognized designer and expert in customizing unique designs.

United Distribution: United Distribution just signed with Argox, a world leader in the barcode printing business. Agrox is known for its commitment to environmental standards throughout Europe, making it a promising partner. We now offer a one-stop-shop formula, with all components of hardware and power protection systems in one package.

WebEra: Web Era is an online media and advertising company. We believe in online advertising as a growing medium that provides the most measurable results with the highest return on investment. We recently contributed to the websites ASSATHA.com, NostalgiaHITS.com, AGGARHA.com and weADnet.com.

While many global banks are facing ruin, Egyptian banks appear to be okay

The answer to the question of whether Egypt is in a financial crisis appears to be no.
“In Egypt we don’t have a liquidity problem so we’re not facing a financial crisis but rather an economic one as our economy will be affected in different ways,” said Ossama Saleh, chairman of the Leasing Authority, during the forum session “Crisis or No Crisis: Make Up Your Mind!” on the second day of Cairo ICT.

While Egypt’s economy certainly appears to be affected by global conditions, some feel that preparation by the government and bank liquidity has cushioned the blow that many other countries are currently facing.

“It is widely known that Egypt was not [as] hardly hit by the global financial crisis as the other countries,” said Karim Ramadan, general manager of Microsoft Egypt. “And we can definitely say that the fact that our banking system is highly regulated prevented the occurrence of many problems.”

“The Egyptian government’s well planned strategy helped to downplay the crisis’ impact on our economy and thus in Egypt we are enjoying a good some of cash liquidity, unlike other countries,” said Saleh.

This doesn’t mean, however, that Egypt is completely immune. One of the most visible effects, arguably because of fear and a lack of confidence in the economy, is the steep decline of the Egyptian Exchange.

“The Egyptian stock witnessed a 70% decrease,” said Maged Shawky, chairman of the Egyptian Exchange. “But I personally believe that this was ONLY due to the expectation, however, the companies that were least affected in the stock exchange were the IT companies.”

Another effect that threatens the Egyptian economy is a decrease in remittances from abroad, particularly from the Gulf, and increased unemployment.

“The crisis doesn’t only have negative financial effects,” said Dr. Hany Sarey Eldin, former chairman of the Capital Market Authority. “But also social ones as the unemployment and layoff rates increase and this is clear in the huge number of those returning to Egypt from the Gulf area, for example.”

It might be ICT to the rescue, as there is still confidence that this is an area of the economy that will not be as affected, or even a potential source of growth due to the outsourcing market.

“The crisis itself created tremendous opportunities for Egypt because now all the companies tend to go for outsourcing: Egypt’s area of excellence,” said Ramadan. “Outsourcing is very important as it is cost effective”

In fact, ICT may have been a key ingredient that has helped keep Egyptian banks from the same fate as those abroad.

“The Egyptian banks now enjoy the automation process which allows us to better and quicker perform our activities,” said Mahmoud Abdel Latif, chairman of the Bank of Alexandria. “If it wasn’t for IT, we wouldn’t be able to face, and in the near future overcome, the financial crisis.”