The newly formed ministry of Telecommunications and Information aims at enhancing and promoting the usage of state-of-the-art information technology systems in all the government and society sectors. The new ministry has already established four working groups entrusted to draft the national information technology and telecommunications plan for Egypt. The national plan aims at promoting and developing telecommunication and information industries ; building an information-based society which applies technology in the daily activities ; developing and enhancing telecommunications and information systems for all the government sectors to serve the national needs of the society at large ; and building the required caliber for the telecommunications and advanced technologies sectors.

In line with the objectives of the national plan, the ministry has taken steps towards promoting information technology in Egypt. A major step taken last February was the provision of Internet access to everyone interested (companies and individuals) at reduced charge rates (approximately, LE 0.15 / min) without their having to subscribe to an Internet service provider. This was achieved through Telecom Egypt which provided the necessary technology for a central Internet access system (a central server). Interested users can now have access to the Internet simply by dialing a specific telephone number.

In addition to the above, a consortium called Internet "baladna" was formed late in 1999. The said consortium aims at providing the national market with low cost computers and internet connection. This initiative is geared towards the society at large, but it is expected that the primary market will be the market of school and university students as well as graduate students who will benefit from this product.

The last quarter have witnessed major activities taking place in Egypt that focused on the promotion of Internet, telecommunications and information technology industries. Among which is the following actions:

Organized by The Regional Information Technology & Software Engineering Center (RITSEC), the Regional Information Technology Institute (RITI), and the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), under the auspices of The Internet Society of Egypt. The CAINET 2000 conference took place in 6-8 March 2000. The conference was attended by key persons and organization in Egypt and worldwide such as Mr. Vinton Cerf the father of the internet.

The conference tackled strategic issues revolving around the Internet’s impact on commerce, education, technology, and communities. Analytically, the agenda of the conference was as follows :

Technology

• Evolution of Internet
• Securing the Internet
• IP technologies and underlying high speed networking platforms (ATM, SONET)
• Multicasting and Push Services on the Net: A Regional Experience
• Towards a regional IP backbone

Commerce

• Electronic Commerce Strategy and Implementation Challenges
• How to "e" your business- viable Business Models
• E-life: trade, services, work, learning
• New world economy & changing government role
• From Theory to Action: Security, Logistics, & Fulfillment

Education

• The importance of technology for learning
• Internet and Education: Diversity or Necessity
• Child Safety on the Internet
• Success Stories: Web sites designed by students
• Kids in the 21st Century…Critical Learners and Thinkers

Communities

• Local and Regional Experience of rural Internet services
• The Internet as a tool for socio-economic development
• Building virtual communities on the Net
• Management and Sustainability of technology access community centers

It is worth mentioning that ESIS was presented in the conference, eliciting considerable interest by the professional community.

This is the first regional conference in the Arab world with a large number of prominent MIT speakers presenting what is hot in high tech entrepreneurial activity, competition in Internet time and new rules for the knowledge-based economy in this information age. Regional specialists discussed the current environment vis-à-vis the background for creating these new economies as well as some success stories from regional high tech entrepreneurs. The conference took place in February 19-20, 2000, in Conrad Hotel, Cairo, Egypt, under the auspices of the MIT alumni association.

The conference was held in Cairo, Egypt in the period from 17-20 January, 2000 under the auspices of H.E. Dr. Atef Ebeid the prime minister. The event was considered an official event to launch Egypt into the new millenium with the attendance of more than 190 companies from 22 countries to present the start of the art technologies, networks and satellite communication systems.

The conference tackled the following issues:

1. Wireless Technologies
2. Data warehousing solutions
3. IT Security
4. Financial institutions in the E-Era
5. Introducing new services via GSM
6. Other topics

The conference was attended by H.E. Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, the secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union in his first visit to the Middle East and the Arab region.

More than 350 people gathered from around the world to open a round of meetings of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers(March 7-10, 2000) held in Cairo, Egypt. This is the first time that these rounds of meetings are held in Africa or the middle east. The hosting organizations are the ministry of telecommunications and information, the IDSC, and the Internet society of Egypt.

The agenda for the ICANN Public Forum on March 9 called for the review and discussion of the following:

• At Large Membership and elections
• Considerations and policies relating to the creation of new top-level domain name registries
• ccTLD delegation and administration policies
• ICANN budget for 2000-2001 fiscal year

The Egyptian government headed by the president Hosni Mubarak have increased their efforts to support information and telecommunications industries as two strategic industries for the coming period. The committee established by the prime minister have repeatedly presented their plan, objectives, and achievements to date. A number of projects have been adopted and approved by the committee and are currently being implemented. For example, the intelligent village project in the 6^th. October city which will be an area allocated for advanced technologies industries among other villages as well. Other decisions were also adopted towards the liberalization of the telecommunications services, training the university graduates in order to build the required technical expertise for the advanced industries, building the telecommunications infrastructure based on high speed networks and technologies, etc.

Al Ahram institution hosted Al Ahram Computer and Information Technology Exhibition from 3-6 February 2000 in the Cairo conference center. This Exhibition focused on computer solutions, peripherals, multimedia applications. The exhibition was attended by H.E. Dr. Ahmed Nazif the minister of telecommunications and information and a number of key organizations in the field.

In cooperation with Al Ahram institution, the National Research Center and the faculty of computer and information - University of Helwan, the American university in Cairo represented by the Computer science department hosted the eighth conference for Artificial intelligence in the period from 3-6 February 2000.

The Association for computer systems users in cooperation with Giza Systems company, hosted in its premises on 22^nd of March a seminar focusing on telecommunications and their role in the transfer of information. The seminar was attended by a number of professionals in the advanced technology fields.

9. Report on Intellectual Property Rights

The World organization for Intellectual Property issued a report in which it praised the efforts achieved by the government of Egypt in the aspect of preserving intellectual property rights. The report shed light on the difficulties faced in the course of reducing software piracy. The report also called for issuing a legislation that organizes the legitimate usage of computer and software applications and other intellectual property products. The report praised the positive development and trend in the software industry pointing at the case in which on of the illegitimate users of software application have been jailed for six months which is considered a major improvement in the laws of intellectual property.

10. Cairo GITEX

A number of prominent multinational organizations have expressed their desire and interest in joining Cairo GITEX 2000 which will be held in the period between 23 and 26 April 2000. The previous conference was a great success with about 200 participating companies and more than 30 thousands visitors. The conference was supported by the major four associations working in the fields of information technology: The Internet Society of Egypt, The Egyptian Association for Advanced technology, the PC companies owners association, and the Egyptian programming society.