Egypt’s Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Mohamed Salem, said Tuesday the cooperation with Nile Basin countries and African countries in general was one of the most important priorities for his country.
Salem told local newspapers that cooperation with these countries was part of his ministry’s vision of the future, which includes building strong relationships and providing economic aid to Nile Basin countries in Africa.
He explained that Egypt had agreed to provide technical support for Nile Basin countries by transferring expertise through training, technical skill-building workshops and youth empowerment in information technology.
He noted that Egypt was to also provide Nile Basin countries with capacity building, technical cooperation and cultural communication enrichment.
The minister also pointed out that Cairo would launch a large human development project for training, where the first phase would involve delegations from Nile Basin countries, who would attend training courses at the National Institute for Communications and Information Technology.
Salem highlighted that the course would last seven to 10 days, where 20 trainees would attend from each of the 10 Nile Basin countries, adding that the goal of the long-term project was to train 3,000 professionals from Basin countries.
The programme will include visits to technological companies in Egypt in the Smart Village, as well as inspection of facilities, private centres and call centres.
Salem said he would soon visit a number of Basin countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, to implement cooperation, partnership, cultural exchange and expertise programmes.
He added that an Egyptian mission would soon be sent to Ethiopia and South Sudan.
The Egyptian minister said his country would provide a range of specialized programmes in both the communications and information technology fields for Burundi, Eritrea and Rwanda.
